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Anthracite 


loal  Strike  Commission 


ARGUMENT 


OF 


H.    T.    NEWCOMB 

of  Counsel  for  the 
Philadelphia  and  Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company 


Philadelphia,  Pa.,  February  12,  1903 


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Anthracite 
Coal  Strike  Commission 


ARGUMENT 

OF 

H.    T.     NEWCOMB 

of  Counsel  for  the 
Philadelphia  and  Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company 


Piiii.ADELi'iiiA,  Pa.,  February  12,  1903 


53^-' 


"^ 


Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Commission 


ARGUMENT 

of 

H.    T.     NEWCOMB 

on  behalf  of 

Philadelphia  and   Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company 


To  the  Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Commission: 

The  importance  of  a  correct  determination  of  the  ques- 
tions submitted  to  this  Commission  is  not  to  be  meas- 
ured even  by  that  attaching  to  the  wages  or  annual  earn- 
ings of  an  industrial  army  nearly  150,000  strong,  or 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  business  which  supplies  the  eco- 
nomic basis  of  a  community  of  eight  hundred  thousand 
human  beings  and  covering  a  region  of  almost  eighteen 
hundred  square  miles,  or  to  the  price  of  the  principal  do- 
mestic fuel  consumed  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  United 
States.  All  of  these  things  are  directly  connected  with  the  is- 
sues between  the  anthracite  mine  workers  and  the  operators 
by  whom  they  are  employed  that  have  been  submitted  to  this 
Commission  and  each  of  them  must  be  affected  in  a  greater 
or  less  degree  by  its  award.  But  there  are  other  matters  of 
wider  and  far  more  permanent  importance  that  are  just  as 
certainly  involved.  Wages,  whether  abnormally  high  or 
unnaturally  low,  must  sooner  or  later,  without  extraneous 
interference  or  in  spite  of  it,  adjust  themselves  to  the  gen- 
eral level  which  is  fixed  by  the  prevailing  standard  of  life 
and  the  condition  of  production  and  trade;  no  industry  can 
long  suffer  beyond  its  fellows  or  enjoy  advantages  which 
they  do  not  share;  an  excessive  price  for  anthracite  might 

3:11  805 


for  a  time  oppress  the  poor  of  the  eastern  states  or  an 
unduly  low  one  might  squander  the  limited  and  irreplac- 
able  supply  of  that  fuel,  but,  in  the  first  case,  the  corrective 
power  of  natural  forces  would  eventually  remove  the  op- 
pression, and,  in  the  second,  the  evil  would  be  no  more 
than  the  anticipation  by  a  few  years  or  by  a  few  decades  of 
that  exhaustion  of  the  anthracite  deposits  which  is  already 
•clearly  in  sight. 

Labor  is,  however,  a  permanent  condition  of  existence 
and  in  spite  of  the  anticipations  of  socialists  and  the  fore- 
bodings of  pessimistic  individualists,  the  institutions  of 
private  property  and  the  wages  system  seem  likely  long  to 
remain,  as  they  unquestionably  are  to-day,  indispensable 
to  the  successful  direction  of  industry  and  the  profitable 
expenditure  of  energy  in  productive  toil.  Of  all  rights  of 
property  the  title  of  a  man  to  himself  is  the  most  impor- 
tant. Liberty  of  action  so  far  as  it  can  be  exercised  with- 
out impairing  the  equal  liberty  of  others  is  an  essential  of 
moral  as  well  as  of  social  and  economic  development.  The 
decision  of  this  Commission  will  authoritatively  answer 
some  questions  of  fundamental  importance  in  regard  to 
personal  freedom  that,  once  regarded  as  beyond  dispute, 
have  lately  been  raised  by  the  acts  and  declarations  of  some 
of  the  parties  to  this  controversy  or  of  those  who  represent 
them.  In  fixing  for  a  considerable  time  the  relations  that 
shall  exist  between  those  who  perform  manual  labor  in 
connection  with  the  production  of  anthracite  and  the 
owners  of  anthracite  property  the  Commission  must  pro- 
foundly influence  the  relations  between  employees  and  em- 
ployers everywhere  in  the  Unitd  States  and  for  a  long  time 
to  come.  It  is  many  decades  since  labor  organizations 
began  to  constitute  an  important  factor  in  the  industrial 
systems  of  the  English-speaking  nations.  These  organiza- 
tions vary  greatly  in  character,  in  methods  and  in  purposes 


and,  some  of  them  having  adhered  to  wrong  principles  and 
adopted  fatuous  or  vicious  methods,  the  movement  has  had 
many  serious  setbacks,  but  in  spite  of  these  errors  and  their 
consequences,  the  industrial  position  of  organized  labor  is 
now  one  of  great  and  probably  increasing  strength.  To  the 
inquiry  which  demands  light  upon  the  future  influence 
upon  American  prosperity  of  this  great  industrial  factor 
the  award  of  this  Commission  must  yield  a  response  full  of 
meaning.  Shall  organized  labor  treat  protestants  against 
its  principles  and  methods  as  outcasts ;  shall  its  leaders,  by 
teaching  that  they  have  no  moral  right  to  protest  or  to  give 
practical  expression  to  their  beliefs,  make  certain  that 
many  of  them  shall  be  stoned  and  beaten  and  others  de- 
prived of  property  or  life  by  its  less  cautious  and  con- 
trollable members;  shall  it  forbid  their  families  the  neces- 
sities of  life  and  the  ministrations  of  priests  and  physi- 
cians ;  shall  it  deprive  their  children  of  employment  ?  Shall 
labor  unions  decree  a  general  level  of  efficiency  which  must 
be  attainable  by  the  least  competent  and  beyond  which  no 
man  may  rise,  shall  they  limit  individual  earning  capacity 
by  iron  rules  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  and  compelling 
energy  to  assume  the  mantle  of  sloth,  shall  they  restrict 
output  and  thus  prevent  the  creation  of  values  certain  to 
be  transmuted  into  wages?  Every  one  of  these  questions 
will  be  more  or  less  directly  answered  by  the  conclusions 
reached  by  this  Commission.  This  high  court  of  extraor- 
dinary jurisdiction;  constituted  by  the  voluntary  agree- 
ment of  the  parties  before  it ;  whose  decree,  enforceable 
by  no  other  process,  will  be  promptly  executed  to  the  last- 
letter  by  the  unbreakable  word  of  those  concerned;  and  from 
whose  decision  there  can  be  no  appeal  is  not  only  to  write 
the  contracts  that  are  to  control  the  relations  between  the 
employees  of  the  several  collieries  of  the  anthracite  region 
and  tlio  operators  l)y  whom  tlicy  are  employed,  but  it  is  to 


formulate  for  free  American  labor  a  new  bill  of  rights  and 
to  give  to  the  industries  of  the  United  States  a  new  de- 
claration of  the  mutual  rights  and  responsibilities  of  the 
employed  and  the  employers. 

SOCIOLOGICAL   CONDITION"   OF   THE   ANTHRA- 
CITE REGION. 

The  anthracite  deposits  of  Pennsylvania  are  principally 
within  the  counties  of  Carbon,  Columbia,  Lackawanna, 
Luzerne,  Northumberland  and  Schuylkill*  and  th'ey  may 
be  taken  as  constituting  the  anthracite  region,  although  the 
veins  extend  somewhat  into  Susquehanna  and  Dauphin 
counties  and  Sullivan  county  contains  a  coal  sometimes 
classed  as  anthracite.  The  mining  operations  of  the  Phila- 
delphia and  Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  are,  with  the 
exception  of  one  colliery  in  Dauphin  county  and  one  in 
Columbia  county,  entirely  located  within  the  counties  of 
Northumberland  and  Schuylkill.  The  population,  in 
June,  1900,  of  the  anthracite  region  as  thus  defined,  classi- 
fied according  to  nativity  and  parentage,  was  as  follows : 


*These  six  counties  produced  97.44  per  cent  of  the  total  output 
of  the  year  1901. 


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If  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  proportion  of  the  147,651 
employees  of  the  anthracite  mines  inhabiting  these  coun- 
tries is  the  same  as  that  which  expresses  the  relation  of 
their  production  to  the  aggregate  output,  it  would  follow 
that  143,871  persons  or  18.00  per  cent  of  their  aggregate 
population  are  direct  recipients  of  wages  from  the  anthra- 
cite mining  corporations.  It  is  clearly  reasonable  to  as- 
sume as  a  basis  of  a  minimum  estimate  of  the  number  of 
persons  in  these  counties  who  are  directly  dependent  upon 
the  wages  paid  to  mine  workers  that  no  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  the  total  employees  are  boys  and  unmarried 
men  and  that  the  average  family  of  the  remainder  consists 
of  five  persons,  including  the  head.  On  this  basis  there 
must  be  575,482  persons, or  72.01  per  cent  of  the  total  popu- 
lation of  these  counties,  who  derive  their  support  directly 
from  the  mining  industry.*  This  proportion  is  so  great  that 
it  leads  directly  to  the  conclusion  that  whatever  degree  of 
prosperity  or  depression  may  be  found  in  this  region  as 
an  whole  is  directly  attributable  to  the  wages,  annual  earn- 
ings, conditions  of  employment  and  social  and  economic 
opportunities  of  the  workmen  who  are  engaged  in  the  pro- 
duction of  anthracite.  If  these  workmen  were  not  actually 
prosperous  it  would  be  impossible  that  prosperity  and 
comfort  should  be  shown  for  the  anthracite  region  as  an 
whole.  Therefore,  if  comparisons  with  other  regions  and 
other  communities  make  a  favorable  showing  for  the  six 
chief  anthracite  counties,  it  must  be  that  labor  is  fairly 
paid,  that  the  conditions  of  employment  are  good,  and  that 
the  opportunities  for  moral,  social  and  economic  develop- 
ment are  not  below  the  average. 


*The  Twelfth  Census  enumerated  157,194  private  families  in 
these  counties.  This  shows  a  ratio  of  ninety-two  mine  workers 
for  every  one  hundred  private  families. 


The  proportions  of  the  different  elements  of  population 
in  these  counties  compare  as  follows  with  the  state  of  Penn- 
sylvania as  an  whole,  with  the  Xorth  Atlantic  group  of 
states  and  with  the  United  States : 


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The  foregoing  shows  that  the  population  of  the  anthra- 
cite region  contains  a  larger  proportion  of  persons  of  for- 
eign birth  and  also  of  the  children  of  immigrants  than 
that  for  the  North  Atlantic  states  taken  together  and  a  very 
much  larger  proportion  of  both  than  the  non-anthracite 
counties  of  Pennsylvania,  the  state  as  an  whole  or  the 
United  States.  The  nationalities  represented  in  the  for- 
eign born  population  of  the  several  counties  of  the  anthra- 
cite region  with  the  number  of  immigrants  from  each  are 
as  follows: 


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The  foregoing  table  shows  that  these  counties,  which 
contain  but  1.05  per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  the 
United  States,  include  within  their  borders  1.74  per  cent 
of  the  foreign  born  inhabitants  of  this  country,  5.41  per 
cent  of  those  born  in  Austria,  9.13  per  cent  of  those  born 
in  Hungary,  1.93  per  cent  of  those  born  in  Italy,  9.69  per 
cent  of  those  born  in  Poland,  2.20  per  cent  of  those 
born  in  Eussia,  and  1.30  per  cent  of  those  born  in  Turi^ey. 
Representing  the  immigrants  commonly  regarded  as  more 
desirable  there  are  in  these  anthracite  counties  2.37  per 
cent  of  all  of  the  persons  born  in  England  who  now  reside 
in  the  United  States,  0.82  per  cent  of  those  born  in  Ger- 
many, 1.82  per  cent,  of  those  born  in  Ireland,  1.37  per  cent 
of  those  born  in  Scotland  and  20.82  per  cent  of  those  born 
in  Wales.  Some  light  is  thrown  upon  the  difficulty  attending 
the  problem  of  assimilating  this  intlux  of  the  foreign  born 
by  the  statistics  of  literacy  and  citizenship  at  the  date  of 
the  last  Census.  These  data  wdth  comparisons  appear  in 
the  following  table : 


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13 

It  appears  from  au  analysis  of  the  foregoing  that  the 
six  principal  anthracite  counties  contain  4.89  per  cent  of 
the  illiterate  males  of  foreign  birth  over  twenty-one  years 
of  age  in  the  United  States,  2.82*  per  cent  of  the  males  of 
voting  age  who  have  not  taken  the  initial  step  toward  citi- 
zenship, and  5.61  per  cent  of  those  who  have  obtained  their 
first  papers  only.  As  compared  with  the  state  of  Penn- 
sylvania as  an  whole  the  foreign  born  males  of  voting  age 
in  these  counties  constitute  18.98  per  cent  of  the  total  and 
include  36.93  per  cent  of  the  naturalized  illiterates,  32.08 
per  cent  of  the  illiterates  who  have  obtained  their  first 
papers,  and  27.79  per  cent  of  those  illiterates  who  remaia 
completely  alien.  They  also  include  19.57  per  cent  of  ail 
persons  of  foreign  birth  not  fully  naturalized,  15.30  per 
cent  of  those  who  have  taken  first  papers  only  and  18.72 
per  cent  of  those  completely  naturalized.  The  percentage 
of  illiteracy  among  the  native  white  males  of  voting  age 
of  Pennsylvania  is  2.53  and  that  among  the  same  element 
of  population  in  the  anthracite  counties  3.63.  The  corre- 
sponding percentage  for  the  United  States  is  4.88. 

There  can  be  no  better  index  to  the  sociological  condition 
of  any  community  than  the  extent  in  which  the  families  of 
which  it  is  composed  occupy  separate  homes  and  own, 
with  or  without  encumbrance,  the  homes  which  they  occupy. 
The  following  table  shows  these  facts  for  the  anthracite 
region,  together  with  suitable  comparisons : 


*Those  reported  in  the  "unknown"  class  have  been  disregarded 
in  the  analysis  of  citizenship. 


14 


^ 


K 

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fe 

M 

H 

H 

a? 

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^ 


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o 

3 

w 

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1-1 

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PLH 

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a 

Ph 

2 

00 

o 

CO 

o 

C^I  CM  r-  00  CD  -^  CD 

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o 

lO 

03 

CO 

05  eo  CO  CM  US  O  00 

S   .n 

CO 

t~^ 

co' 

co' 

lO  oi  cm'  co'  lO  OJ  CD 

o  g 

o 

U5 

CO 

CO 

CD  CO  t~  O  CO  »0  CO 

fc^ 

00 

o 

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CO 

CM  ■*  O  CO  ei  »o  lO 

m 

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16 

Xo  one  will  deny  that  the  foregoing  makes  an  extremely 
favorable  showing  for  the  antliracite  region  especially  when 
it  is  remembered  that  an  uncommonly  large  proportion  of 
the  population  of  this  district  consists  of  immigrants  of 
relatively  recent  arrival  who  have  as  yet  enjoyed  for  but  a 
brief  period  the  opportunities  which  the  dominant  indus- 
try of  those  counties  affords.  Every  one  of  the  counties 
shows  a  proportion  both  of  owned  homes  and  of  homes 
owned  free  of  encumbrance  that  notably  exceeds  the  aver- 
age for  the'  Xorth  Atlantic  states  and  in  both  respects  the 
averages  compare  favorably  with  those  for  the  state  as  an 
whole  and  for  the  non-anthracite  counties.  The  evidence 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  anthracite  region  afforded  by  this 
table  is  supplemented  by  the  following  statement  which 
relates  to  the  towns  in  that  district : 


16 


w. 
O 


O 


1—1       M 

1^    o 


Q 

(M 

(M 

O  eo 

lO 

O^' 

CM 

■* 

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o 

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a> 

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02 

o 

t^ 

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t^ 

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CO 

o 

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t^ 

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o  ^-< 

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r~ 

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CO 

CO 

a 

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r^ 

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lO 

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a 

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m 

^_^ 

Tf   CO 

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t^ 

t^ 

05 

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CM 

CM   CM 

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CM 

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17 

While  statistics  of  deposits  in  banks  and  saving  institu- 
tions do  not  ordinarily  establish  any  facts  in  regard  to  the 
prosperity  of  particular  individuals  or  portions  of  a  com- 
munity, it  is  submitted  that  when  one  industry  so  far 
dominates  a  district  as  that  of  anthracite  mining  does 
the  six  counties  under  discussion  such  statistics  do  express 
the  general  condition  of  the  people.  These  institutions 
exist  for  no  purpose  except  to  handle  the  business  of  the 
community  and  the  funds  which  they  hold  are  in  a  large 
degree  both  the  basis  and  the  measure  of  commercial 
activity,  which  commonly  coincides  with  general  welfare. 
The  following  statement  shows  data  upon  this  subject : 


18 


m 

n3 

QJ 

A 

P 

o 

^ 

>> 

rO 

tS 

o 

m 

p. 

!zi 

3 

o 

t^ 

h- 1 

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c3 

ti 

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> 

1— 1 

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c  ">-> 

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§  2 

1— 1 

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to  " 

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M 

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c 

r/) 

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00 

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E- 

II 

19 


Beyond  this  the  Commission  has  had  specific  evidence 
of  the  ownersllip  of  homes  and  other  property  by  miners. 
The  testimony  of  Dr.  Peter  Koberts,  the  sociological  expert 
called  to  testify  on  behalf  of  the  striking  mine  workers,  on 
this  subject  was  as  follows : 

"Q.  Have  miners  been  obtaining  homes  to  anj'  extent  within 
the  last  ten  years? 

"A.     Yes,  sir. 

"Q.     In  what  section? 

"A.  All  through  the  northern  coal  fields  here;  down  also 
through  the  middle  coal  fields  and  the  southern  coal  fields  as  far 
as  opportunity  was  given  them  to  acquire  real  estate  and  homes. 

"Q.  All  classes  alike,  or  has  it  been  confined  to  particular 
nationalities? 

"A.  All  classes  alike  with  the  exception,  possibly  of  the 
Italians,  who  do  not  settle  and  make  homes  in  the  United  States."^ 

Another  witness  called  by  the  complainants,  the  Eev. 
James  Moore,  of  Avoca,  declared  that  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  of  the  families  belonging  to  his  congregation 
occupy  homes  which  they  own.  As  he  gave  the  attendance 
at  his  church  as  about  three  hundred,  it  is  evident  that 
almost  half  of  the  families  represented  must  reside  in 
owned  homes. f  ]\Iany  of  the  miners  and  other  mine  work- 
ers who  were  called  as  witnesses  testified  that  they  live  in 
houses  which  they  own  and  several  told  of  owning  prop- 
erty under  rental  to  others.  A  mining  superintendent 
testified  that  when  he  built  a  house  for  his  own  use  he  was 
offered  a  loan  on  it  by  one  of  the  miners  working  under  his 
direction,^  and  the  Commission  will  not  forget  the  witness 
who  complained  of  the  condition  of  the  company  house 
in  which  he  resides  and  for  which  he  pays  $4.75  per  month, 
but  admitted  on  cross-examination  that  he  owns  a  house 

*Testimony  p.  700. 

■j-Testimony  p.  1470. 

JR.  A.  Pliillips,  superintendent  of  the  coal  mining  depart- 
ment of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western.  Testimony  p. 
0098. 


20 

that  is  insured  for  $1,000  and  for  which  he  obtains  a  rental 
of  fifteen  dollars  per  month.*  There  has  also  been  much 
testimony  showing  that  a  very  gratifying  proportion  of  the 
employees  of  particular  companies  and  at  j)articular  col- 
lieries occupy  houses  which  they  own. 

THE    ANTHKACITE    EEGION    AS    A    TEAIKING 
SCHOOL  FOE  AMEEICAN  CITIZENS. 

The  data  in  regard  to  the  extent  and  character  of  the 
immigration  into  the  anthracite  region  that  have  been 
given  show  that  in  this  district  the  problem  of  assimilating 
the  large  number  of  persons  who  come  to  America  with 
little  acquaintance  with  its  institutions  and  little  of  the 
spirit  out  of  which  they  have  been  developed  is  especially 
acute.  The  immigrants  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe 
must  be  brought  to  an  entirely  new  conception  of  govern- 
ment before  they  are  qualified  to  perform  the  duties  and 
bear  the  responsibilities  of  American  citizenship.  For  fear 
of  the  law  and  of  the  agencies  of  government  there  must 
be  substituted  in  their  minds  an  high  respect  for  those 
rules  of  conduct  by  which  a  free  people  has  chosen  to  regu- 
late the  terms  social  and  economic  intercourse.  They  must 
be  educated  to  an  adequate  comprehension  of  what  it  means 
to  enjoy  liberty  regulated  by  law  and  a  due  regard  for  the 
equal  rights  of  others  and  must  acquire  a  deep  sense  of 
obligation  to  cherish  and  conserve  the  institutions  which 
were  not  established  here  without  much  effort  and  abundant 
sacrifice.  The  solution  of  the  problems  of  assimilation 
that  are  peculiarly  difficult  in  the  anthracite  region  cannot 
be  regarded  as  of  merely  local  importance.  Whatever  de- 
gree of  success  or  failure  is  there  attained  cannot  fail  pro- 
foundly to  affect  the  welfare  of  every  section  of  the  United 
States  and  the  future  development  of  this  nation. 

*Aiigust  Baker.     See  testimony  p.  2524. 


21 

Organized  society  in  this  region  lias  not  overlooked  these 
problems  nor  failed  to  act  in  accordance  with  its  obliga- 
tions. The  foundation  of  sound  training  for  citizenship 
is  broadly  and  deeply  laid  by  the  provision  of  most  ample 
school  facilities  while  an  excellent  statute  renders  school 
attendance  compulsory  and  thus  interposes  the  arm  of  the 
State  for  the  protection  of  the  future  citizen  against  the 
selfish  or  indifferent  parent  who  might  regard  the  child  as 
an  asset  and  seek  to  derive  an  income  by  depriving  him'of 
the  opportunities  so  generously  provided  and  so  freely 
offered.  Many  witnesses  called  by  the  striking  mine  work- 
ers have  testified  to  the  excellence  of  the  school  facilities  of 
the  anthracite  region  and  to  their  superiority  over  those  of 
other  portions  of  the  state.  Mr.  Griffith,  superintendent 
of  the  schools  of  Nanticoke,  declared  that  the  qualifications 
of  the  teachers,  the  school  houses  and  the  general  equip- 
ment for  educational  purposes  of  that  place  arc  far  superior 
to  those  in  the  rural  districts  and  that  the  term  of  school 
is  longer  than  the  average  for  the  state.*  Mr.  Phillips, 
city  superintendent  of  Scranton,  testified  that  the  school 
facilities  in  the  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  region  equal 
those  in  communities  of  similar  size  and  wealth  elsewhere 
and  tliat  he  knows  of  none  better  in  the  country.f  The 
following  statement  shows  the  relation  between  the  num- 
ber of  persons  classified  by  the  Census  Office  as  being  of 
school  ages  (from  five  to  twenty  years  inclusive)  and  the 
value  of  public  school  property  and  the  expenditure  for 
school  purposes  as  reported  by  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Education  for  the  i)rincipal  towns  and  citit's  of  the 
anthracite  region : 

^Testimony  p.  2318. 
fTostiniony  pp.  2074-81. 


22 


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23 

The  reports  from  which  the  foregoing  was  compiled 
show  that  in  the  entire  United  States  there  are  26,099,788 
persons  of  school  age  and  that  the  value  of  the  school  prop- 
erty and  the  annual  expenditures  amounts  to  $333,777,996 
and  $99,457,234  respectively,  showing  an  average  value  per 
capita  of  possible  pupils  of  $12.75  and  an  average  annual 
rate  of  expenditure  of  $3.81  per  caj)ita.  The  number  of 
persons  of  school  age  in  Pennsylvania  is  2,031,171,  and  is 
to  be  compared  with  public  school  property  valued  in  the 
aggregate  at  $33,136,226  and  an  annual  expenditure  of 
$9,964,421.  The  averages  per  capita  of  possible  pupils  are 
therefore  $16.31  and  $4.91  respectively. 


24 


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25 

The  statistics  of  school  attendance  collected  by  the  Cen- 
sus are  given  only  by  states  and  territories  and  for  cities 
of  twenty-five  thousand  inhabitants.  There  are  but  two 
cities  of  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  in  the  anthracite 
region,  Scranton  with  102,026  inhabitants  and  Wilkesbarre 
with  51,721.  The  two  eastern  cities  nearest  to  Scranton  in 
population  are  Fall  River,  Mass.,  and  Paterson,  IST.  J.,  and 
those  nearest  to  Wilkesbarre  are  Elizabeth,  N".  J.,  and  Erie, 
Pa.  The  following  table  shows  comparisons  of  school  at- 
tendance for  these  cities : 


26 


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27 

The  figures  representing  tlie  lengtli  of  attendance  during 
the  Census  year  make  an  equally  favorable  showing  for  the 
anthracite  reaiou.    A  table  follows : 


28 


O 

p 

o 
o 

W 
o 


O     5 


1 

a 

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c^        o 

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a 

O           O           —           CO 
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II 

39 

In  addition  to  those  in  the  public  schools  of  Scranton 
and  Wilkesbarre  there  were,  during  the  year  1899-1900, 
according  to  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  seventy-six 
hundred  persons  in  the  private  and  parochial  schools  of 
those  cities.  These  facts  clearly  show  how  baseless  is  the 
charge  that  the  children  of  the  anthracite  region  are  kept 
away  from  school  by  the  necessity  of  laboring  to  aid  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  families  to  which  they  belong  or  that 
they  are  prematurely  taken  out  of  school  for  any  reason  or 
purpose.  The  public  school  facilities  of  the  region  are  not 
only  excellent  in  quality  and  extent,  but  they  are  utilized 
by  those  for  whom  they  have  been  established  more  gener- 
ally than  those  of  many  other  regions. 

The  anthracite  region  is  also  liberally  supplied  with 
churches,  libraries,  reading  rooms  and  all  of  the  means  by 
which  modern  society  provides  opportunities  for  the  moral 
and  intellectual  advancement  of  its  members.  To  these 
institutions  the  operating  corporations  contribute  both 
directly  and  indirectly,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  those 
maintained  by  taxation,  for  the  mining  companies  every- 
where pay  the  largest  share  of  the  taxes,  while  in  many 
portions  of  the  region  they  are  substantially  the  only  tax- 
payers. 

For  the  past  two  or  three  years,  however,  there  has  been 
another  influence  that  must  have  affected  in  a  marked 
degree  the  training  of  those  immigrants  who  form  such  a 
large  share  of  the  population  of  this  region.  The  advent  of 
the  United  Mine  Workers  in  1899  or  1900  has  unques- 
tionably been  followed  by  a  rapid  growth  in  membership 
and  that  organization  has  lately  had  such  strength  as 
almost  to  control  the  public  sentiment  of  many  of  the  min- 
ing communities  of  the  anthracite  district.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  Hunt  the  doctrines  iiiid  policic^s  advocated  by  the 
men  from  the  l)iiiiiiiiiuiiis  coiil    (Iclds  who  dominate  this 


30 

organization  liave  gained  ascendency  in  the  minds  of  thou- 
sands of  those  who  have  with  such  apparent  readiness 
accepted  their  leadership.  The  views  of  these  leaders  are 
therefore  of  national  consequence.  If  they  claim  for  the 
majority  of  workers  at  a  particular  colliery  or  of  the  entire 
region  the  right  to  declare  that  the  minority  shall  not  work, 
or  assert  that  such  a  majority  may  fix  the  prices  for  which 
their  fellow  workmen  shall  be  permitted  to  dispose  of  their 
labor  or  the  hours  that  they  may  work  or  the  conditions 
under  which  their  services  may  be  rendered,  it  is  perfectly 
natural  that  their  followers  should  come  to  believe  that  the 
privileges  of  American  citizenship  do  not  include  liberty 
of  action  in  these  matters  when  it  would  contravene  the 
wishes  of  a  greater  number.  If  these  leaders  teach  that  the 
man  who,  in  order  to  provide  bread  for  his  children  or  to 
preserve  from  destruction  property  on  which  the  liveli- 
hood of  entire  communities  depends,  continues  to  perform 
his  duties  when  others  have  chosen  to  abandon  their  em- 
ployment is  a  traitor  to  his  fellows  and  as  such  properly 
to  be  treated  as  an  outcast,  that  his  family  must  be  shunned 
and  may  even  be  denied  access  to  the  necessaries  of  life, 
many  of  their  fellows  are  certain  to  regard  the  secondary 
as  well  as  the  primary  boycott  as  an  approved  American 
institution.  However  frequently  these  leaders  may  advise 
in  general  terms  against  enforcing  by  physical  means  the 
new  moral  law  which  they  declare  requires  the  immediate 
and  practical  acquiescence  of  every  individual  in  the  plans 
of  the  majority,  if  they  fail  to  search  out  those  guilty  of 
specific  acts  of  violence  and  to  visit  upon  them  prompt 
and  equally  specific  condemnation,  if  they  fail  to  write 
into  the  polity  of  their  organization  provisions  for  the  dis- 
cipline of  those  who  disregard  their  advice  or  misconstrue 
their  more  general  declarations  concerning  unlawful  acts 
they  cannot  escape  responsibility  for  the  consequences  of 


31 

their  neglect.  If  they  oppose  the  introduction  of  machin- 
ery, or,  while  denying  that  they  wish  to  restrict  the  effec- 
tiveness of  labor  to  a  level  fixed  by  the  less  energetic  and 
capable,  defend  with  skillful  casuistry  every  device  by 
which  the  performance  of  the  more  efficient  is  limited  there 
need  be  no  surprise  over  the  fact  that  the  local  unions  in 
innumerable  instances  adopt  resolutions  fixing  precise 
limits  upon  the  labor  of  their  members  and  enforce  them 
by  stopping  all  production  when  they  are  disobeyed.  If 
they  accuse  the  judges  who  differ  with  them  as  to  the 
proper  use  of  the  time-honored  processes  of  American  and 
English  jurisprudence  of  partiality  to  the  employers  and 
with  heated  rhetoric  impugn  their  motives,  it  is  not  strange 
that  many  of  the  new-fledged  and  embryo  citizens  whom 
they  lead  fail  to  comprehend  that  the  American  judiciary 
is  second  only  to  the  integrity  of  American  citizenship  as 
a  bulwark  of  American  liberty  and  that  general  respect  for 
the  Courts  and  the  laws  is  an  absolute  essential  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  institutions  of  the  country.  If  they  rail 
at  the  militia  and  falsely  accuse  the  lawfully  constituted 
coal  and  iron  police  of  provoking  disorder  the  dissatisfac- 
tion with  these  guardians  of  peace  which  they  foment  among 
their  followers  is  sure  to  find  expression  in  a  general 
antipathy  to  the  agencies  of  the  law. 

The  doctrines  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 
as  presented  to  tlie  workmen  of  the  anthracite  region  by 
leaders  who  have  little  acquaintance  with  its  peculiar 
problems  and  no  direct  responsibility  or  interest  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  industry,  and  the  practices  of  its  local  assem- 
blies, which  these  leaders  have  not  effectively  opposed,  have 
already  produced  results  the  consequences  of  which  will  be 
felt  for  years  to  come  and  in  every  respect  unfortunate.  If 
tbc  final  sum  of  sucli  tcacliing  is  not  to  be  expressed  in 
national  disaster  it  is  ncccssarv  tliat  the  doctrines  should 


32 

be  promptly  and  radically  modified  and  the  practices 
speedily  corrected.  This  Commission  cannot  withhold 
from  them  its  severe  and  specific  condemnation  without, 
by  its  silence  or  its  omissions,  seeming  to  accord  to  them 
the  indorsement  of  its  high  authority  and  the  sanction 
of  its  almost  measureless  moral  influence. 

DESTROYING  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE. 

The  history  of  the  anthracite  industry  from  1899  to  1903 
has  so  often  been  sketched  that  few  are  unacquainted  with 
its  more  important  events.  The  beginning  of  that  period 
saw  a  region  throughout  which  the  utmost  good  feeling 
characterized  the  relations  between  the  employed  and  the 
employers.  Between  the  mine  workers  and  the  officers  of 
the  mining  corporations  there  was  complete  confidence  and 
mutual  respect.  The  door  of  every  employer  was  open  to 
the  workman  or  to  the  group  of  workmen  who  wished  to 
present  a  grievance  or  to  suggest  an  improvement  in  the 
relations  existing.  Grievances  were  carefully  considered 
and  whenever  corrections  were  needed  they  were  promptly, 
fairly  and  intelligently  applied.  This  condition  was  not 
satisfactory  to  the  leaders  of  the  organization  of  bitumin- 
ous miners  of  which  Mr.  John  Mitchell  is  the  head.  Under 
his  ambitious  leadership  they  had  planned  a  monopoly  of 
the  labor  of  all  American  coal  fields.  They  sent  their 
salaried  emissaries  into  the  anthracite  region  and  employed 
others  on  a  commission  basis*  of  payment  and  by  preaching 
discontent  succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  strike  of  1900. 
To  make  this  strike  effective  Mr.  Mitchell  personally  ad- 
vised the  employees  of  G.  B.  ]\Iarkle  &  Co.  to  violate  an 
agreement  of  long  standing  which  provided  for  the  arbi- 
tration of  all  disputesf  while  other  Avell-known  agents  of 

*Testiinony  p.  342. 

fMr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  p.  546. 


33 

his  organization  planned  marches  and  resorted  to  the  cus- 
tomar}'  methods  of  intimidating  men  who  would  like  to 
work.*  The  settlement  of  this  strike  gave  to  all  of  the 
workers  of  the  anthracite  mines  an  advance  in  wages  of 
at  least  ten  per  cent  and  to  those  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Eeading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  an  increase  of  sixteen 
per  cent,  which  was  in  part  offset,  however,  by  the  aboli- 
tion, at  the  demand  of  the  organization  and  on  the  per- 
sonal advice  of  Mr.  Mitchell,  of  the  sliding  scale.  Enter- 
ing this  strike  with  a  membership  of  but  a  few  thou- 
sand the  unrest  which  it  occasioned  supplemented  by 
refusals  to  work  with  non-union  menf  has  enabled  the 
organization  to  increase  its  strength  until,  without  by 
any  means  equaling  the  exaggerated  number  sometimes 
suggested,  its  membership  does  include  a  considerable 
percentage  of  the  employees  in  and  about  the  mines. 
The  entire  period  of  the  existence  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  in  the  anthracite  region  has  been  characterized 
by  unrest  and  disorder  of  a  serious  description.  The 
discipline  which  is  obviously  essential  to  the  safety  of 
the  men  employed  in  the  mines  has  been  seriously  im- 
paired by  the  insubordination  of  those  who  have  not  been 
taught  to  see  in  organization  anything  more  than  a  device 
to  get  the  better  of  their  employers  and  to  protect  them- 
selves against  the  legitimate  consequences  of  their  own 
wilful  misconduct.  On  his  direct  examination  Father  Cur- 
ran,  a  witness  certainly  friendly  to  the  strikers  and  called 
in  their  behalf,  declared  that  the  organization  had 

".  .  .  .  brouf^ht  about  certain  abuses  whicli  of  course  are  not 
to  be  tolerated  anywhere;  such,  for  instance,  as  bringing  about 
petty  strii<es  of  little  boys,  slatepickers.  They  are  not  to  be 
tolerated."! 

*Tcstiiiiony  ]).  7094. 
t:\Ir.  Milclicll.  p.  01. 
:!;Test iiiKiiiy  p.  1571. 


34 

The  general  superintendent  of  the  Lehigh  and  Wilkes- 
barre  Coal  Company  testified  that  his  company  had  suf- 
fered from  twelve  local  strikes  between  1900  and  1902,  of 
which  three  were  on  the  part  of  slate  pickers  and  two  in 
connection  with  a  demand  to  be  permitted  to  collect  work- 
ing cards.*  Another  witness,  Mr.  W.  G-.  Thomas,  superin- 
tendent of  the  Black  Diamond  Coal  Company,  testified 
that  when  a  driver  boy  was  cautioned  by  the  driver  boss 
about  a  matter  vital  to  the  safety  of  other  employees,  he 
replied :  "Go  to  hell !  Mitchell  is  my  boss,"  and  that 
when  this  boy  was  discharged  it  occasioned  a  strike  in 
which  all  the  men  in  the  mine  participated  and  keeping 
the  colliery  idle  for  an  entire  day.f  These  are  but  samples 
from  the  very  large  number  that  has  been  related  to  the 
Commission,  but  they  surely  justify  Dr.  Eoberts'  conclu- 
sion that  the  present — 

"Local  unions  are  not  trained  to  discuss  patiently,  adopt  calmly 
and  execute  bravely,  plans  for  the  amelioration  of  mine  em- 
ployees. Their  minds  constantly  dwell  upon  immediate  personal 
advantage,  either  in  shorter  hours  of  labor  or  increased  pay. 
Material  interests  seem  to  be  the  pivot  of  all  their  movements. 
They  demand  immediate  action,  with  a  view  to  direct  personal 
gain.  Tlie  future  welfare  of  the  industry,  the  difficulties  and  out- 
lays of  operators,  the  conditions  of  the  trade,  and  the  intellectual 
and  moral  elevation  of  the  mine  employees  are  seldom  thought 
of."t 

Mr.  Mitchell  tacitly  admits  these  evil  results  of  the  advent 
of  his  organization  in  the  region  to  which  it  had  been 
wholly  foreign,  but  contends  with  less  than  his  customary 
plausibility  that  the  wise  course  on  the  part  of  the  opera- 
tors would  be  to  enter  into  an  agreement  with  it  including 
among  the  terms  of  the  contract  provisions  forbidding  the 
misconduct  which  he  is  unable  to  deny.     He  made  this 

*Mr.  William  J.  Richards.     Testimony  p.  6768. 
•j-Testimony  pp.  1037  et  seq. 
:j:Testimony  p.  832. 


35 


suggestion  very  concisely  in  an  answer  to  a  question  on 

cross-examination,  in  which  he  spoke  as  follows : 

'"The  Union  will  bo  here.  It  will  have' all  the  power  for  good 
or  evil  tliat  it  has  now.  The  coal  operators,  if  they  desire  to, 
could  not  crush  the  Union.  They  cannot  wipe  it  out.  I  hope 
they  would  never  try  to  do  it.  Then  it  is  going  to  stay  here. 
As  long  as  it  is  going  to  be  here,  why  not  have  an  arrangement 
that  will  place  limitations  on  its  power  as  far  as  the  effect  of 
the  discipline  of  a  working  force  is  concerned?  .... 
T  think  we  will  not  have  the  very  things  that  you  complain  of. 
and  the  things  that  I  complain  of,  too."'' 

Two  years  of  the  dominance  of  the  United  Mine  Workers 
has  been  sufficient  to  substitute  for  the  general  peace, 
good  will  and  mutual  confidence  which  antedated  its  com- 
ing the  conditions  out  of  which  grew  the  strike  of  1902. 
The  change  has  already  been  summarized  by  Honorable 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  a  member  of  this  Commission.  In 
the  report  which,  as  Federal  Commission  of  Labor,  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  June  20 
of  last  year  he  said : 

'■'The  present  strike  finds  its  roots  in  the  settlement  of  the  strike 
Avhich  occurred  in  1900,  when  the  advance  demanded  by  the  miners 
in  the  anthracite  region  was,  after  considerable  discussion,  con- 
ceded. Nearly  all  operators  and  many  connected  with  the  miners' 
union  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  since  that  settlement  there  have 
been  increased  sensitiveness  and  more  intense  irritation  in  the 
mining  districts  than  during  the  previous  twenty-five  years  or 
more.     .     .     . 

"There  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  since  1900  there  has 
been  more  trouble  with  discipline  than  during  the  whole  previous 
period  since  1871.  The  officers  of  the  union  are  frank  enough 
to  say  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  this  ....  tliere 
is  no  confidence  existing  between  the  employees  and  their  em- 
ployers and  ....  suspicion  lurks  in  the  minds  of  every- 
one and  distrust  in  everj-  action  on  either  side." 

THE  STEIKE  OF  1002. 
The  authority  of  Dr.  liobcrts,  the  eniiiuMit  sociologist, 
who  has  devoted  years  to  the  study  of  the  labor  conditions 

*T('st iiiiom-  II.  ;{(!(). 


3G 

in  the  anthracite  region  and  was  the  witness  called  next 
after  Mr.  Mitchell  on  behalf  of  the  striking  mine  workers, 
sniDports  the  statement  that  so  far  at  least  as  the  Reading 
district  is  concerned  the  strike  of  1902  did  not  originate 
with  ,the  rank  and  file  of  the  organization.  His  studies 
have  told  him  how  this  organization  is  dependent  upon 
strife  for  its  very  existence  and  he  has  learned  that  its 
leaders  busily  concern  themselves  in  efforts,  presumably 
along  the  lines  which  he  and  they  recognize  as  most  effec- 
i.ive  to  maintain  the  interest  of  its  members.  Dr.  Eoberts 
has  declared  that 

"The  leaders  of  the  miners'  organization  are  kept  busy  devising 
means  whereby  the  interest  of  the  members  of  the  union  may  be 
maintained.  Indifference,  jealousy  and  dissension  are  constantly 
invading  its  ranks.  During  the  last  year  when  the  industry  was 
to  a  great  extent  peacefully  conducted,  the  interest  flagged.  About 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  men  neglected  to  pay  their  dues,  and  an- 
other twenty  per  cent  perfunctorily  paid  their  money  and  took  no 
interest  in  the  organization.  When  the  last  convention  was  called 
and  the  rumors  of  conflict  filled  the  air,  the  delinquents  soon  fell 
into  line.  The  union  is  only  interesting  to  a  large  number  of  its 
members  when  a  conflict  is  impending."* 

The  foregoing  is  especially  significant  when  taken  in  con- 
nection with  other  statements  of  the  same  witness  in  re- 
gard to  the  conditions  in  the  portion  of  the  anthracite 
region  in  which  the  operations  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  are  located.  Dr.  Roberts 
is  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  Mahanoy  City,  and  when  he 
speaks  of  the  relations  between  the  Reading  and  its  em- 
ployees he  does  so  from  personal  knowledge.  The  follow- 
ing statements  made  by  him  form  parts  of  his  testimony : 

''The  Reading  Company,  for  instance,  has  the  reputation  of 
dealing  justly  and  liberally  by  its  employees."  f 

"The  Reading  Company  has  given  very  liberal  concessions  to  its 
workmen.  It  was  the  first  to  ofi'er  ten  per  cent  advance  to  its  em- 
ployees on  the  September  wages,  which  were  six  per  cent  above 

^Testimony  pp.  829-30. 
fTestimony  p.  800. 


37 

the  basis,  and  so  actually  giving  an  advance  of  sixteen  per  cent. 
It  also  restored  the  old  prices  paid  for  timbering.  These  conces- 
sions have  been  interpreted  bj'  the  leaders  of  the  union  as  efforts 
to  induce  their  employees  to  forsake  the  organization."* 

"In  the  middle  and  southern  coal  fields  the  grievances  are  few. 
Some  of  the  employees  of  individual  companies  complain  that  the 
operators  do  not  live  up  to  their  contracts.  The  relation  between 
the  Eeading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  and  its  employees  is  most 
amicable.  The  men  as  a  rule  are  contented  with  present  condi- 
tions and  are  opposed  to  a  strike.  The  delegates  from  the  Schuyl- 
kill regions  formed  the  conservative  element  in  the  Shamokin  con- 
vention. They  still  hope  a  peaceful  settlement  will  be  effected. 
Yet,  they  declare  that  if  the  grievances  of  their  brethren  in  the 
Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  valleys  are  not  adjusted  they  will  join 
them  in  a  strike  and  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  union."f 

Mr.  Joseph  Fetzer,  a  stationary  engineer,  who  declared 
that  he  struck  rehictantly,  was  called  by  the  complainants 
and  gave  specific  evidence,  which  was  supplemented  by 
that  of  other  witnesses  and  controverted  by  none,  of  the 
methods  generally  stated  by  Dr.  Roberts.  Mr.  Fetzer  had 
not  been  re-employed  at  the  date  of  his  appearance  as  a 
witness,  but  has  now  been  restored  to  the  payroll  of  the 
company,  where  it  is  hoped  that  he  will  long  remain. 
When  testifying  for  the  striking  mine  workers  his  only 
complaint  was  that  he  had  not  been  immediately  re-em- 
ployed on  the  resumption  of  work,  and  he  spoke  as  follows 
in  regard  to  the  company : 

"They  have  behaved  very  well  to  me,  have  done  right  in  every 
respect.  I  was  sick  and  they  not  only  paid  me  for  the  time  I  lost, 
but  on  two  different  occasions  gave  me  a  free  pass  to  go  to  see 
a  doctor  in  Philadelphia.  They  behaved  very  good  to  me  and  it 
Avas  appreciated  very  fully."J 

In  response  to  an  inquiry  whether  he  had  always  had 
fair  treatment  from  Mr.  Veith,  the  company's  mining 
superintendent,  and  its  other  officers,  the  same  witness 
said: 

"Always  the  best  of  friends.  1  always  looked  ni)nn  .Mr.  Veith 
as  a  good  friend  and  old  neighbor  of  ours  from  way  back.     Mr. 

•Testimony  p.  821. 
fTestimony  p.  824. 
^Testimony  p.  2698. 


38 

Veith  and  our  families  have  been  acquainted  I  should  say  forty- 
five  years,  maybe  more,  between  forty-five  and  fifty  years."* 

The  methods  emploj'ed  by  the  Heading,  which  produced 
this  satisfactory  condition  of  affairs,  have  been  explained 
to  the  Commission  by  Mr.  Veith,  its  mining  superin- 
tendent, and  Mr.  McGuire,  one  of  its  superintendents  of 
division.  Mr.  McGuire's  testimony  was,  in  part,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"If  there  is  any  difference  between  the  mine  foreman  and  any 
employees  in  the  collieiy,  it  is  taken  up  by  the  district  superin- 
tendent. If  they  fail  to  settle  it,  it  is  called  to  the  attention  of 
the  division  superintendents.  Then,  if  they  collectively  fail  to 
make  any  settlement,  or  come  to  an  understanding,  the  matter  is 
referred  to  Mr.  Veith. 

"Q.     Do  such  grievances  always  receive  attention? 

"A.     Always  receive  attention;   yes. 

"Q.  Have  you  ever  had  any  difficulties  that  could  not  be  and 
were  not  adjusted  amicably? 

"A.     Never  had  any  of  that  kind."f 

Again  under  cross-examination  the  same  witness  said : 

"I  have  known  cases  where  Mr.  Veith  has  received  a  letter  from 
a  man  in  Tower  city,  and  instead  of  putting  a  man  to  the  trouble 
of  coming  to  Pottsville,  he  has  went  to  Brookside  colliery  and 
notified  him  to  be  there  and  settle  it  right  there  on  the  spot. 

"Q.     That  is  an  exception,  however,  is  it  not? 

"A.  It  is  not  an  exception;  no,  sir;  it  is  a  rule  there.  You 
may  call  it  a  rule."f 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Veith  was  especially  direct  and 
convincing.    He  said: 

'■Q.  Have  you  any  difficulty  with  the  men  in  arriving  at  a 
satisfactory  adjustment  of  all  these  questions? 

■'A.     No,  not  that  I  know  of. 

"Q.     Have  you  always  met  them  whenever  they  came  to  you? 

"A.     Yes,  sir. 

"Q.     Always  endeavored  to  adjust  them? 

"A.  Yes;  our  men  are  accustomed,  if  they  can't  agree  with  the 
boss,  superintendent  or  division  superintendent,  then  they  have 
the  privilege  to  come  and  see  me. 

"Q.     Have  you  ever  refused  to  talk  to  any  man? 

"A.     No;  1  don't  know  why  I  should. "§ 

*Testimony  p.  2693. 
f Testimony  pp.  7930-1. 
^Testimony  p.  7953. 
§Testimony  p.  7837. 


39  ; 

But  under  the  urging  of  organizers  from  the  bituminous 
coal  fields  many  of  the  employees  of  the  Reading  entered 
into  agreements  with  the  mine  workers  of  the  soft  coal 
districts  and  with  those  in  other  portions  of  the  anthracite 
region  which  by  their  terms  surrendered  to  the  employees 
of  rival  operators  and  to  the  producers  of  a  competing 
product  the  ultimate  decision  as  to  the  conditions  upon 
which  these  Reading  employees  should  consent  to  continue 
their  relations  with  this  considerate  and  liberal  employer. 
They  were  induced  to  make  arrangements  with  persons 
remote  from  the  district  in  which  they  labor  in  the  ob- 
servance of  which  they  might  be  compelled  to  deal  most 
unfairly  with  a  fair  employer.  The  greatest  evil  which  is 
obviously  latent  in  such  an  arrangement  came  to  pass.  The 
satisfied  mine  workers  of  the  Schuylkill  region  were  over- 
borne by  numbers  and  forced  to  choose  between  the  viola- 
tion of  their  vicious  contract  and  committing  a  serious 
injustice  upon  those  who  had  always  been  just  to  them. 
Most  of  the  members  of  the  organization  chose  to  abide 
by  its  decision  and  the  disastrous  strike  of  1902  was  in- 
augurated. Their  principal  excuse  is  that  a  heavy  share 
of  the  privations  which  it  entailed  was  borne  by  them- 
selves and  those  who  deprecate  most  intensely  the  fallacious 
system  that  occasioned  so  much  suffering  in  the  mine  re- 
gions and  in  the  homes  of  the  poorer  consumers  of  anthra- 
cite will  accord  to  this  misguided  devotion  to  an  imaginary 
obligation  that  degree  of  respect  which,  witlinut  regard  to 
the'  error  of  moral  judgment  involved,  is  always  due  to 
those  wlio  make  sacrifices  in  tlie  performance  of  what  they 
suppose  to  be  a  duty.  Other  and  less  creditable  incidents 
of  the  prolonged  strike  will  receive  attention  later  in  this 
argument. 


40 

THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  STEIKING  ANTHEACITE 
MINE  WORKERS. 

THE    WEIGHT   BASIS   OE    PAYMENT. 

The  demands  of  the  late  strikers,  so  far  as  they  concern 
the  Philadelphia  and  Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  are 
but  three  in  number,  and  one  of  these  is  excluded  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Commission  by  the  terms  of  the  submis- 
sion. Very  early  in  the  proceedings  the  complainants  saw 
from  the  testimony  of  their  own  witnesses  the  inherent 
weakness  of  the  demand  concerning  the  weighing  of  coal, 
especially  in  its  application  to  the  Schuylkill  region,  and  so 
far  as  this  respondent  is  concerned  it  has  been  definitely 
and  formally  abandoned. 

WAGES   AND   EARNINGS. 

The  complainants  ask  for  an  order  compelling  a  general 
horizontal  advance  of  twenty  per  cent  in  the  rates  of  pay- 
ment in  force  during  the  year  1901  for  all  contract  or 
piece  work.  This  demand  applies  chiefly  to  the  contract 
miners,  although  in  the  instances  in  which  the  coal  is 
loaded  by  laborers  employed  by  the  former  it  is  contended 
that  the  advance,  if  granted,  would  accrue  to  the  latter  as 
well.  In  the  collieries  of  this  respondent  coal  is  mainly 
loaded  by  employees  of  the  company  who  work  on  a  per 
diem  basis  and  are  in  no  way  affected  by  this  demand.  Mr. 
Mitchell  freely  acknowledged  while  on  the  witness  stand 
that  he  had  no  definite  knowledge  of  the  amounts  earned 
by  contract  miners  during  1901,  and  it  is  now  perfectly 
clear  that  this  general  demand  was  based  upon  nothing 
more  than  a  general  belief  that  a  demand  for  higher  rates 
could  be  sustained.  The  Commission  has  so  frequently, 
throughout  the  testimony,  heard  the  earnings  of  indi- 
viduals understated  by  themselves,  no  doubt  with  no  inten- 
tion to  deceive  but  merely  on  account  of  their  failure  to 
keep  accurate  accounts  and  a  tendency  to  minimize  the 


41 

amounts  that  is  natural  on  such  occasions,  that  it  need  not 
be  surprised  that  Mr.  IMitchcll,  whose  knowledge  of  these 
matters  has  been  confessedly  acquired  at  second  or  third 
hand,  should  have  been  led  to  underestimate  the  earnings 
of  the  certificated  miners  of  the  anthracite  region.  Happily 
no  one  need  now  be  under  any  misapprehension  concerning 
these  earnings,  for  the  facts  necessary  to  establish  the  truth 
have  been  made  easily  available  through  the  labors  of  this 
Commission  and  the  co-operation  of  the  mining  com- 
panies. 

During  the  year  from  November  1,  1900,  to  October  31, 
1901,  inclusive,  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading  Coal  and 
Iron  Company  actually  paid  for  mining  work  done  by 
certificated  miners,  under  the  contract  system  in  vogue 
at  the  thirty-seven  collieries  which  it  operated  during  that 
period,  the  sum,  as  shown  l)y  its  payrolls,  of  $3,-l:81:,036.18,* 
exclusive  of  all  deductions  for  working  material  and  sup- 
plies. Unrestricted  access  to  the  payrolls  and  time  rec- 
ords has  been  permitted  during  the  progress  of  this  inves- 
tigation to  the  Commission  and  its  agents  and  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  complainants,  and  there  is  not  and  can- 
not be  any  controversy  over  the  facts  which  they  show.  The 
time  spent  in  the  mines  by  a  contract  miner  on  any  day  on 
wliicli  ho  enters  at  all  is  accepted  as  a  shift  and  appears  as 
such  on  the  payrolls,  except  in  instances  in  which  miners 
work  as  partners  and  mutually  agree  that  on  account  of 
the  loss  of  time  of  one  of  them  he  shall  receive  pay  for  a 
fraction  of  a  shift  only.  The  shift  is  therefore  a  unit  that 
may  be  defined  as  a  day  varying  in  length  according  to  the 
dispositions  or  perhaps  the  opportunities  of  the  different 
miners.     The  number  of  these  shifts  worked  during  the 

*For  this  and  the  data  followinf^  see  Statement  Shnwinsx  Aver- 
age N  Earnings  of  Contract  Miners  at  Collieries  of  the  Pliila(lcl]ihi:i 
and  Reading  Coal  and  Iron  ('oni])any,  iilfil  in  cviilciicc  on  Decem- 
ber 10,  1902. 


43 

year  shown  was  1,389,568.5,  and  this  precisely  expresses 
the  number  of  daily  units  of  labor,  variable  as  they  are, 
for  which  the  payment  of  $3,484,036.18  was  made.  Divid- 
ing the  latter  amount  by  the  former  it  appears  that  the 
average  net  payment  per  day  to  the  contract  miners  during 
the  period  in  question  was  $2,507.  The  average  number  of 
days  worked  by  the  Beading's  breakers  during  the  period 
was  260.4.  This  number  of  days  work  was  therefore 
offered  to  each  individual  among  the  number  necessary  not 
only  to  perform  the  number  of  days  labor  actually  paid  for, 
but  to  make  up  the  larger  number  that  would  have  been 
gladly  paid  for  had  it  been  possible  to  obtain  an  occupant 
for  every  working  place  on  every  working  day.  No  col- 
liery ever  works  without  its  full  complement  of  men  when 
it  can  be  obtained,  and  even  when  in  former  years  it  was 
necessary  to  prevent  overstocking  the  market  with  anthra- 
cite the  evil  was  invariably  obviated  by  closing  the  col- 
lieries on  certain  days  rather  than  by  wastefully  operating 
them  short-handed.  During  the  year  covered  by  these 
statistics  the  Eeading  desired  to  obtain  more  coal  than  it 
succeeded  in  mining.  A  man  who  worked  260.4  days  at 
the  average  rate  of  $2,507  per  day  would  earn  $652.82, 
and  if  any  contract  miner  in  the  employ  of  this  respondent, 
whose  daily  labor  was  performed  under  average  conditions 
with  no  less  than  the  average  degree  of  efficiency,  failed 
to  earn  at  least  this  amount  it  must  have  been  on  account 
of  idleness  which  may  have  been  due  to  a  lack  of  disposi- 
tion to  work  more  regularly  or  to  personal  or  family  mis- 
fortunes over  which  the  company  could  have  had  no  con- 
trol. 

More  than  this,  if  the  conditions  under  which  any  con- 
tract miner  labored  who  worked  260.4  shifts  were  so  pecu- 
liary  disadvantageous  as  to  leave  his  net  earnings  below 
this  average  and  if  the  capacity  of  any  such  miner  was  so 


43 

limited  as  to  produce  tliat  result  these  miners  were  bal- 
anced by  others  more  fortunate  or  skillful  whose  earnings 
exceeded  the  average.  The  differences  in  the  capacity  of  men 
will  never  disappear,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  in 
the  long  run  those  in  the  character  of  working  places  will 
balance  themselves,  as  among  different  individuals,  especi- 
ally as  the  foremen  and  other  officers  of  the  company  are 
constantly  seeking  to  adjust  the  rates  of  payment  so  as  to 
equalize  the  unavoidable  physical  differences.  But  al- 
though the  collieries  worked  on  the  average  but  260.4  days 
of  varying  duration  there  was  an  average  of  15.6  other 
days  on  Avhich  work  would  have  gone  on  had  not  the  em- 
ployees prevented  it  by  failing  to  report  for  duty  in  ade- 
quate numbers.  Xo  individual  workman  could  have  ob- 
tained these  additional  days  by  his  separate  action,  Init  if 
a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  total  number  had  accepted 
these  opportunities  the  man  who  did  not  remain  absent 
from  his  work  on  any  day  would  have  had  no  less  than  276 
days  work  and,  if  an  average  man  in  an  average  place, 
would  have  earned  $691.93.  It  is  not  contended  that  large 
numbers  of  men  are  able  to  work  on  every  working  day, 
but  it  is  urged  that  the  proper  average  allowance  for  neces- 
sary idleness  is  easily  made  by  any  man  of  business  experi- 
ence. In  the  case  of  the  anthracite  miners  this  allowance 
is  diminished  by  the  frequent  opportunities  afforded  by  un- 
avoidable break-downs  and  temporary  suspensions  for  other 
reasons,  for  attention  to  matters  which  under  other  cir- 
cumstances miglit  occasionally  require  the  absence  of  the 
most  faithful  employee.  It  would  be  fruitless  to  attempt 
to  reduce  to  figures  an  allowance  as  to  the  proper  extent  of 
wliicli  opinions  will  naturally  differ,  but  some  recognition 
of  Ihis  factor  will  |)i'(i|i('i'ly  lie  tiiadc  l)y  any  one  who  con- 
siders the  foUowiiiL!,-  table: 


44 


^   i 

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c 

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3 

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•^i^'.^t-^'^oo  i-'t  ^  o6-r  *!'r  —  :■:  — ^  TJ  -^  o  c^—  v:*  — -'  c'.^  I-'  r-i— *r-'  c:*  *^i-  i~  1-  rT  o  ^:j 
oo  ^  ~.  ~:  ic -).  ut  t- 1- Tq  t^  -  o -.r  r.  ^  ut  y-  -i  -J-  r^  t .r ^ -bi-  ==.  S  ?i  c;  = '.  -r  r~  3-. 

S. 
S 
g 

i-H 
4& 

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a  u  3 

^■ 
a 

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PS 

s 
=; 

2; 

T3_ 

ic t~ in LCt- cq -)■  CO -^- 0 3C -3"  rt ,- 1- 1~ L.-:; ^ 01  -T f  ut  1.-  —  C-.  —  r^ C-.  u- !0 . -  u- 1-  0  -.c 0 'i- 

CO 
yd 

est- 

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c5 

•<  no. 

|i(N  ?q  c4  CO  N  CO  cq  cq  «  N- M  N  N  e4  ci  c4  N  cq- eg  c4  ci  (N  c^  03  CO  oi  N  esi  c^ 

2; 

Actual 

amount  paid 

to  contract 

miners 

$160,445.47 
104,192.88 

182,885.25 

37,3'28.19 

21,2l:!.72 

42,726.48 

.53,6,i4.()7 

1,57,470.10 

120.,S(>8.30 

22,(;o0.15 

41,879..80 

.52,7S2.53 

79  596..82 

132,734.96 

61,115  74 

61,1S7.02 

90,021.76 

179,401.61 

13'2,713.'26 

]98,4(3S.'.;9 

99,709..59 

73,001.93 

124,(!40.64 

10.3,125.47 

72,:i55.S6 

24,S'27.05 

60,:i93.o4 

107,810.02 

39.429.20 

101,812.54 

00.373  SI 

138,.5S7.02 

12n,SS|.0l 

51,H52.44 

1, '!;!,. 590. 03 

61,740.86 

163  222.23 

00 

i 

00 

Actual 

number  of 

shifts  paid  for 

65,969 
43,210 
74,788.5 
13,829 

7,057 
16,222 
17,789 
62,702 
53,302.75 

9,277 
14,004 
17,619 
27,647 
55,435 
27,819.25 
24,330.25 
.35,966 
73,952 
.51,1,55 
96,718.25 
38,427 
26,582 
49,552.5 
38,298 
24.001 

6,697 
24,447 
44,631 
13,461.5 
44,140.25 
23,500.25 
55,662 
.53,021 
20.581 
51,017 
26,265 
60,463 

lO    t 

oo 

'A 

30 
CO 

Average 
number 
employed 

o«gt-ma;otoQOcnoioooe^c<io^-*uO'a:>sorco>n'.oiMcomc<iMt-t-i:~crioocnc 

iC«it-0(MCOO->'05eO>Ot-,—  O.-HCi^Ct-OCuC-rOOO^CKMCitr-O'.OOCOC-jOOClO,— 
C^l,— KM                          Oq,-H                    ,— .CCr-l        ,— 1  C<1  r-,  re  I— . ,— 1  ^^  r-i                    t— t        .— i        Cqi— .        T— 1        Cq 

1 

CO 
CO 

to 

O 

Alaska 

Boar  Valley    .  . 
Burnside   .... 

Bast 

Bear  Ridge  .   .   . 
Boston  Run     .  . 
Draper  .... 

Kaglo  Jlill    .   .   . 
(rirard  Mammoth 
(lilberton  .... 
()lond()W()r    .   .   . 
(Jood  Spring    .    . 
Henry  Clay  .   .   . 
Indian  Ridge  .   . 
Kohiiioor  .... 
Knickerbocker  . 
Locust  (iiap  .   .   . 

Lincoln 

Maple  Hill   .   .    . 
Mahanoy  City     . 
North  Fra,nklin 
North  Mahnnoy 

Olto 

I'otts  

Preston  No. .'!  .    . 
Phu'ni.x  Park  .   . 
Rolianco   .... 
Richardson  .    .   . 
Shenandoah  City 
St.  Nicholas     .   . 

Suffolk 

Silver  Creek    .   . 
Turkey  Run   .   . 
Tunnel  Ridge     . 
Wadosville  .   .   . 
West  Brooksido  . 

p 

45 

In  connection  with  the  foregoing  statement  it  should  be 
observed  that  a  part  of  the  necessary  allowance  for  un- 
avoidable absence  from  work  that  must  be  made  in  all 
industries  is  to  be  found  in  the  column  showing  days  on 
which  the  breaker  would  have  started  had  an  adequate 
number  of  men  reported  for  duty.  It  is  also  to  be  noted 
that  the  general  averages  of  $652.82  and  $691.93  are  lower 
than  they  w^ould  be  if  the  Henry  Clay  colliery,  which  did 
not  work  at  all  during  the  months  of  April,  May  and  June, 
1902,  had  been  excluded. 

The  very  direct  and  simple  method  of  calculation  ex- 
plained in  connection  with  the  foregoing  has  been  sub- 
jected to  a  great  deal  of  unjustifiable  criticism,  probably 
because  it  has  been  recognized  from  the  beginning  that 
unless  the  statement  could  be  weakened  the  contention  that 
the  miners  are  underpaid  would  fall  to  the  ground.  There 
could  be  no  more  accurate  method  of  ascertaining  the  pre- 
cise facts  of  the  situation  than  that  adopted  for  this  state- 
ment and  no  more  enlightening  tabulation  has  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Commission.  The  method  is  the  same  in 
principle,  although  more  accurate  in  its  detailed  execution, 
as  that  followed  by  every  official  statistical  bureau  which 
attempts  to  show  the  earnings  of  the  employees  of  manu- 
facturing establishments.  Moreover  it  is  sustained  by  the 
tabulations  of  the  exact  payments  to  the  contract  miners 
of  nine  of  the  Heading's  collieries,  which  were  presented 
on  the  schedules  prepared  by  the  Commission.  Thus 
the  foregoing  table  shows  average  earning  for  the  260 
days  on  which  the  Preston  No.  3  breaker  worked  of 
$963.82,  while  the  statement  compiled  on  the  forms  sub- 
mitted by  the  Commission  shows  that  the  average  of  all 
men  who  worked  2r)0  days  or  more  was  $996.86.  For  the 
Turkey  Enn  colliery  the  statement  just  given  shows  $644.86 
for  256  breaker  days,  while  iho  tabulation  of  the  specific 


46 

amounts  paid  to  particular  men  shows  that  the  men  who 
worked  225  days  or  more  averaged  $677.23.  Similar  com- 
parisons could  be  made  for  each  colliery  and  would  show 
that  the  figures  given  underrate  rather  than  otherwise  the 
earning  power  of  men  who  work  steadily. 

It  has  been  conceded  throughout  this  inquiry  that  it  is 
the  business  of  every  industry  to  pay  fair  wages,  that  what 
constitutes  fairness  is  not  to  be  determined  by  the  profits 
of  the  business  and  that  no  employer  has  any  right  to  plead 
the  lack  of  financial  success  of  his  undertakings  as  an  ex- 
cuse for  failure  adequately  to  compensate  those  whom  he 
employs.    This  leaves  no  method  of  determining  what  con- 
stitutes fair  wages  for  any  service  or  at  any  time  except  by 
comparisons  with  other  industries   and  other  periods  of 
time.     The  question  is  reduced  to  a  determination  of  the 
normal  market  rate  for  the  grades  of  labor  employed  sup- 
plemented by  suitable  allowances  for  any  especial  advan- 
tages or  disadvantages  that  may  accompany  the  employ- 
ment.   The  advantages  of  employment  as  a  contract  miner 
include  the  excellent  opportunities  for  advancement  which 
have  been  shown  by  the  testimony  of  many  witnesses  now 
occupying  positions  of  great  responsibility  who  have  told 
the  Commission  that  they  started  in  the  breakers  or  in  the 
mines,  the  opportunity  to  increase  earnings  by  the  exercise 
of  greater  diligence  and  the  acquisition  of  superior  skill, 
the  even  and  moderate  temperature  of  the  mines  which 
is  the  cause  of  the  exceptional  healthfulness  of  the  occupa- 
tion, the  short  hours  of  labor  necessary  to  earn  good  wages 
and  the  large  degree  of  individual  freedom  that  may  prop- 
erly be  permitted  in  the  industry.     Its  only  serious  dis- 
advantage is  its  hazardous  character  which  is  particularly 
expressed  by  the  extreme  penalties  with  which  it  punishes 
the  too  numerous  instances  of  negligence  on  the  part  of 
men  to  whom  danger  has  become  familiar.     The  unques- 


47 

tionably  dangerous  character  of  the  occupation  does  not 
justify  an  effort  to  exaggerate  this  element  and  it  certainly 
renders  highly  improper  any  apparent  justification  of  the 
gross  disregard  of  ordinary  prudence  which  has  produced  so 
many  deplorable  accidents.  Concerning  the  general  health- 
fulness  of  the  occupation  of  mining  the  Commission  has 
before  it  the  statistics  of  the  registration  states  compiled 
by  the  Census  Office,  which,  however,  do  not  cover  the 
-Htate  of  Pennsylvania,  and  therefore  permit  very  general 
conclusions  only.  These  data  show  a  much  lower  death 
rate  among  "miners  and  quarrymen"  than  in  any  other 
occupation.  The  average,  however,  is  more  or  less  affected 
by  the  relative  ages  of  those  engaging  in  the  different 
occupations,  but  so  far  as  this  might  tend  to  reduce  the 
death  rate  of  miners  by  reason  of  the  elimination  of  the 
very  old,  it  is  probably  offset  by  the  inclusion  of  deaths 
from  accidents  as  well  as  those  from  disease.  The  death 
rates  for  the  different  age  classes  compare  as  follows  with 
those  in  the  different  classes  of  occupations. 


48 


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49 

The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Assocyation  de- 
clared editorially  in  its  issue  for  December  6,  1902,  that 
many  of  the  miners  represented  by  the  statistics  of  the 
Census  "are  engaged  in  much  more  unhealthy  work  than 
coal  mining"  and  that  "according  to  the  English  figures" 
the  work  of  a  quarrj^man  "is  in  some  respects  less  health- 
ful than  that  of  the  coal  miners/"'  Convincing  informa- 
tion upon  this  subject  has  been  placed  before  the  Com- 
mission by  numerous  witnesses  who  are  themselves  exam- 
ples of  long  trade  life.  The  following  shows  that  some  of 
the  witnesses  who  have  appeared  are  themselves  excel- 
lent illustrations  of  the  fact  that  many  men  follow  the 
occupation  of  mining  for  periods  as  long  as  those  common 
in  any  trades  requiring  physical  exertion : 


50 


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No  effort  has  been  made  to  make  the  foregoing  an  ex- 
haustive list  of  those  who  were  so  questioned  so  as  to  bring 
out  the  necessary  facts  and  the  great  majority  of  the  wit- 
nesses called  were  not  asked  concerning  their  ages  or  length 
of  service.  The  list  is  decidedly  suggestive  as  it  stands 
and  certainly  throws  light  upon  some  of  the  important  con- 
ditions of  this  industry.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
conclusion  reached  by  Mr.  John  Veith,  as  the  result  of 
spending  more  than  half  a  century  as  an  anthracite  miner 
in  Penrisylvania  and  in  the  direct  supervision  of  mining 
operations  in  the  Schuylkill  region,  that  the  "business  of 
mining  coal,  working  in  the  mines  as  they  are  now  man- 
aged, is  a  healthy  occupation,  outside  of  accidents,  as  com- 
pared with  other  employments,"*  is  an  accurate  one.  This 
is  also  sustained  by  the  testimony  of  Dr.  William  B.  Keller, 
who  furnished  statistics  based  upon  3,973  examinations  for 
life  insurance  which  he  had  made,  showing  that  the  per- 
centage of  rejections  among  miners  was  but  4.66  per  cent 
and  that  for  all  persons  examined  5.76  per  cent.!  Dr. 
Gibbons,  one  of  the  witnesses  on  behalf  of  the  complain- 
ants, declared  in  his  examination-in-chief: 

"I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  miners  are  an  unhealthy  class. 
They  are,  I  think,  the  hardiest  and  best  fellows  for  anything  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  but  certain  conditions  will  bring  them  down, 
as  it  will  any  other  individual,  perhaps  not  so  quickly,  but  suffi- 
ciently often  to  make  them  a  subject  of  disease  more  easily  than 
one  would  suspect.''^ 

The  general  conclusions  of  the  editor  of  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association  as  expressed  in  the  arti- 
cle from  which  quotations  have  already  been  made  are  as 
follows : 

"Taking  it  altogether,  the  facts  collected  from  all  available 
sources  seem  to  indicate,  what  we  have  already  expected,  that  the 


^Testimony  p.  78G3. 

f Testimony  pp.  5195  et  seq. 

^Testimony  p.  969. 


53 

occupation  of  coal  mining  is  not  either  relatively  or  absolutely 
unhealthful  as  compared  with  the  majority  of  other  means  of 
gaining  a  livelihood.  It  has  its  inconveniences  and  hardships 
and  is  exposed  to  special  dangers  from  accidents,  but  these  can  be 
minimized  by  proper  care,  appliances  and  legal  regulations.  In 
Great  Britain  the  mortality  from  coal  mining  from  this  cause  is 
given  by  Nevvsholme  as  less  than  twice  that  in  the  general  popula- 
tion. The  special  diseases  to  which  miners  are  liable  seem  also 
to  be  largely  preventable,  thus  greater  care  in  changing  the  equa- 
ble atmosphere  of  the  mine  to  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  out- 
side would  probably  reduce  the  proportion  of  respiratory  affec- 
tions, such  as  asthma,  etc.,  that  are  now  claimed  to  be  incident 
to  the  occupation.  These  are  the  natural  deductions  from  the 
data  furnished  by  the  authorities  above  quoted  and  which  cannot 
well  be  discredited." 

That  coal  mining  is  a  dangerous  occupation  in  respect 
to  its  liability  to  accidents  has  not  been  denied  by  any  of 
the  parties  before  the  Commission.  The  accidents  to  mine 
employees  are  numerous,  far  more  numerous  than  they 
would  be  if  there  were  less  recklessness  on  the  part  of 
those  upon  whom  the  penalties  directly  fall.  While  the 
respondents  have  not  attempted  to  deny  the  facts  they  have 
heard  them  grossly  exaggerated  by  the  other  side.  It  has 
been  asserted  that  mining  is  more  dangerous  than  any 
other  important  occupation;  thus  placing  it  ahead,  in  point 
of  danger,  not  only  of  railway  employment,  but  beyond 
those  vocations  which  require  men  to  "go  down  to  the  sea 
in  ships"  or  to  labor  in  constant  proximity  to  enormous 
quantities  of  high  explosives  or  subject  them  to  the  great 
dangers  which  surround  many  other  forms  of  necessary 
labor.  •  A  comparison  between  the  death  rates  from  acci- 
dents of  those  who  follow  the  most  dangerous  callings  in 
the  anthracite  mines  and  in  the  American  railway  service 
follows : 


54 

FATAL    ACCIDENTS    TO    MINEES    AND    TRAIN- 
MEN.* 

Number  of    Number  of  fatal 
Industry  AND  OCCUPATION.         Number  of       fatal  accidents   accidi-nts  |ier 
employees.  in  year.        l.UUO  employees. 

Mining — 

All  inside  employees 98,464  441  4.47 

Contract  miners   37,804  224  5.92 

Miners'  laborers   26,265  122  4.64 

Railway  transportation — 

Trainmen   209,043  1,537  7.35 

The  foregoing  comparison  between  the  death  rates  from 
accidents  in  the  most  dangerous  branches  of  two  dangerous 
occupations  shows  that  209,043  railway  trainmen  accept  a 
risk  that  is  24.16  per  cent  greater  than  that  for  the  contract 
miners  in  the  anthracite  region,  58.41  per  cent  greater 
than  for  the  miners'  laborers,  and  64.43  per  cent  greater 
than  for  all  inside  employees.  Unfortunately  there  are  no 
statistics  accessible  from  which  it  would  be  possible  to 
obtain  the  ratios  of  non-fatal  accidents  among  different 
classes  of  mining  employees.  The  following  statement 
shows  the  rates  of  accidents  to  all  classes  of  anthracite 
mining  and  railway  employees: 


*Data  from  the  Report  of  the  Pennsylvania  Bureau  of  Mines 
for  1901  and  the  Report  of  the  Statistician  to  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  for  the  year  ended  June  30,  1901. 


55 


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56 

The  foregoing  needs  little  comment.  The  items  relating 
to  all  employees  in  the  railway  industry  include  general 
officers  and  general  office  clerks  and  many  other  persons 
whose  work  is  in  no  way  comparable  with  mining  employees 
of  any  grade.  The  net  result  of  these  comparisons  is  that 
for  no  less  than  seven  hundred  thousand  railway  men, 
including  all  except  stationmen,  shopmen  and  telegraph 
employees,  the  average  annual  loss  of  life  per  thousand  is 
greater  than  for  the  employees  working  in  and  about  the 
anthracite  mines. 

It  is  especially  gratifying  to  this  respondent  that  the 
statistics  compiled  by  the  state  Bureau  of  Mines  establish 
the  fact  that  in  spite  of  the  geological  disadvantages  under 
which  its  work  is  conducted  the  ratios  of  fatal  and  non- 
fatal accidents  to  the  number  of  employees  are  lower  in  the 
three  inspection  districts  in  which  it  operates,  as  an  whole, 
than  in  the  other  five  taken  together.  In  1901  one  em- 
ployee in  each  310  was  killed  and  one  in  each  149  was  in- 
jured in  districts  6,  7  and  8,  while  in  districts  1  to  5,  inclu- 
sive, the  corresponding  numbers  were  277  and  107  respec- 
tively. 

Granting  that  the  work  of  a  contract  miner  is  dangerous 
it  remains  to  be  decided  how  much  in  the  way  of  a  differen- 
tial allowance  for  the  risk  incurred  may  properly  be  added 
to  the  normal  wages  for  equally  skillful  and  laborious  ser- 
vice. It  is  not  possible  to  measure  in  dollars  and  cents  the 
loss  of  a  human  life  and  any  effort  to  discuss  this  feature 
of  the  case  is  complicated  by  the  flood  of  sympathy  that  is 
aroused  even  by  the  cold  statistics  by  which  the  degree  of 
danger  is  measured.  But  there  are  dangers  to  be  avoided 
that  are  quite  as  real  although  less  visible  or  readily  meas- 
ured. To  pay  an  excessive  differential  means  to  lure  into  a 
region  already  overcrowded  a  further  influx  of  laborers 
and  to  raise  the  price  of  coal  to  millions  of  consumers 


57 

The  death  rate  from  inability  to  purchase  an  adequate 
supply  of  fuel  is  no  more  ascertainable  than  the  extent  in 
which  strength  of  body  and  mind  would  be  undermined 
among  the  children  of  adults  who  might  survive  the  blight- 
ing consequences  of  insufficient  warmth.  It  is  narrow  and 
destructive  sympathy  which  closes  its  eyes  to  the  suffering 
that  would  be  widespread  and  chronic  in  order  to  confine 
its  vision  to  the  obvious  and  acute.  The  best  way  to 
determine  whether  a  reasonable  allowance  is  made  in  the 
wages  of  the  contract  miner  and  his  laborer  for  the  dan- 
gers which  they  incur  is  by  comparing  them  with  the  rates 
in  the  more  dangerous  callings  of  the  railway  service.  The 
average  payment  to  the  contract  miners  of  the  Philadelphia 
and  Eeading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  during  1901  was 
$2,507  per  day  of  about  seven  hours  average  duration.  The 
statistician  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has 
given  the  average  daily  earnings  during  the  fiscal  year 
1901  of  locomotive  engineers  as  $3.65,  of  train  conductors 
as  $3.00,  of  firemen  as  $3.08  and  of  other  trainmen  as 
$1.93  per  day.*  Only  the  two  latter  classes  are  comparable 
in  skill  and  responsibility  with  the  average  contract  miner. 
The  miners'  laborers  of  the  Eeading  receive  $2,058  per 
day. 

The  following  statement  shows  the  daily  earnings  of 
various  classes  of  railway  employees  in  the  region  covered 
by  the  foregoing  averages  during  each  year  from  1892  to 
1901  inclusive: 

*These  averages  apply  to  Group  II,  which  consists  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland  and  West  Virginia, 
except  those  portions  of  these  states  which  are  south  of  the  Poto- 
mac river  or  west  of  a  line  roughly  drawn  from  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
through  Pittsburg  to  Piirlvcrsburg,  W.  Va. 


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59 

The  foregoing  very  clearly  shows  that  the  daily  earnings 
of  mining  employees  compare  very  favorably,  the  same 
grades  of  labor  being  used,  with  those  in  the  railway  in- 
dustry.* They  also  compare  favorably  with  labor  in  other 
industries  in  the  same  region.  The  following  statement 
which  has  been  made  from  data  reported  by  the  Census 
Office  offers  opportunity  for  comparisons.  The  average 
employee  of  the  industries  shown  is  believed  to  be  fairly 
comparable  as  to  skill  and  other  qualities  of  the  services 
rendered  with  the  average  contract  miner.  At  any  rate 
very  little  acquaintance  with  industrial  affairs  is  neces- 
sary to  determine  where  allowance  for  differences  should 
be  made  or  what  should  be  its  extent.  The  averages  pre- 
sented relate  to  males  of  sixteen  years  of  age  or  older. 


*See  appendi.^,  showing  rates  of  pay  and  earnings  of  mining 
employees  otlier  than  contract  miners  of  tlie  Philadelphia  and 
Reading  Coal  and  Iron  Company. 


60 


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61 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  average  in  none  of  the  indus- 
tries and  cities  even  approximated  the  $652.82  earned  by 
the  miners  who  do  contract  work  in  the  Heading's  collieries. 
The  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics  of  Pennsylvania  col- 
lects reports  of  wages  and  earnings  from  the  manufactur- 
ing establishments  of  the  state  and  publishes  them  in  two 
series  of  averages  from  which  the  following  relating  to  the 
year  1901  have  been  selected  as  representing  industries  in 
which  the  large  proportion  of  highly  skilled  male  labor 
required  renders  the  data  of  value  in  determining  whether 
the  contract  miners  are  fairly  paid,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  represent  all  grades  of  labor. 


62 


AVEEAGES    FROM  1892 

Average 
daily 

IRSDSTBT.  earnings. 

Pig  iron   $1.71 

Rolling  Mills,  general  product 2.19 

Iron  and  steel  sheets  and  plates ....  2.08 

Plate  and  bar   2.20 

Steel    1.88 

Architectural  cast  and  wrought  iron 

work    1.77 

Iron  forgings 2.51 

Nails  and  spikes 1.67 

Nuts  and  bolts   1.42 

Pipes  and  tubes   1.72 

Iron  foundries  and  machine  work..  1.87 

Stoves,  ranges  and  heaters 2.14 

Hardware 1.36 

Malleable   iron    1.83 

Saws,  edged  tools,  etc 1.75 

Metal  and  metallic  goods 1.56 

Locomotives  and  engines 2.06 

Engines  and  boilers  1.76 

Boilers    1.57 

Bridges   1.79 

Car  springs   2.72 

Car  couplers   1.60 

Cars  and  car  wheels 1.85 

Ship  building    1.60 

Window    glass,    bottles    and    table 

goods   1.96 

Pianos  and  organs   1.46 

Carbons    1.74 


SEEIES.* 

Number 
of  days 
worked. 

EarniDgB  of 

employees 

who  worked 

full  time. 

337 

$576.72 

316 

692.10 

278 

577.28 

291 

641.12 

296 

555.94 

306 

541.36 

295 

740.47 

266 

443.11 

286 

406.38 

303 

521.14 

303 

567.43 

234 

501.31 

293 

398.70 

302 

553.05 

301 

527.39 

326 

508.46 

304 

625.99 

301 

530.96 

308 

484.35 

309 

553.43 

303 

822.76 

303 

485.19 

305 

564.10 

313 

500.56 

235 

460.45 

299 

437.73 

294 

510.37 

*This  series  shows  a  general  average  for  all  industries  in  the 
state  of  $1.84  per  day  and  $544.80  for  a  year's  labor  comprising 
296  days.  The  1896  series  shows  an  average  of  $1.53  per  day  or 
$449.95  for  a  year  in  which  there  were  293  days  worked. 


63 

AVERAGES  FROM  1896  SERIES. 

Earnings  of 

Average  Number  emi>Ioyees 

daily  of  days  who  worked 

Industrt.          •                        earnings.  worked.  full  time. 

Steel  castings   $1.65  302  $497.01 

Steel  billets,  slabs,  blooms,  etc 2.05  290  7G8.14 

Tool  steel,  etc 2.68  295  789.40 

Iron  and  steel  forgings 1.90  278  529.41 

Iron  specialties  1.59  301  478.72 

Malleable  iron 1.72  286  493.18 

Bolts,  nuts,  etc 1.19  306  363.63 

Wire  nails,  rivets,  etc 1.50  301  451.64 

Tacks  and  small  nails 1.25  280  350.11 

Wire    1.37  302  415.00 

Wire  rope    1.40  308  431.76 

Wire  goods    1.02  294  300.70 

Wagon     and     carriage     axles     and 

springs    1.79  277  496.42 

Scales,  etc 2.09  293  61 1.75 

Stoves,  ranges,  heaters,  etc 2.22  249  552.39 

Bath  boilers,  tanks,  etc 1.50  304  455.23 

Hardware  specialties 1.46  296  430.87 

Edge  tools    1.52  297  450.39 

Wrenches,  picks,  etc 1.83  281  513.27 

Locomotives  and  cars  bnilt  and  re- 
paired     2.02  304  612.57 

Wrought  iron  pipe  and  tubes 1.77  284  502.18 

Cast  iron  pipe 1.52  315  478.64 

Brass,  copper  and  bronze  goods....  1.58  305  480.62 

Iron  and  steel  bridges 1.83  309  566.83 

Locomotives,  stationary  engines,  etc.  2.06  303  625.27 

Engines,  boilers,  etc 1.86  303  562.88 

Cars,  springs,  axles  and  railway  sup- 
plies      1.77  308  538.68 

Iron  vessels  and  engines 1.73  330  572.32 

Boilers,  tanks,  stacks,  etc 1.66  298  496.49 

Machinery    1.80  307  551.42 

Foundries  and  machine  shops 1.80  303  545.33 

Files,  etc 1.29  288  372.45 

Saws    2.03  288  583.70 

Plumbers' supplies  1.46  332  486.09 

Electrical  supplies   1.90  300  570.78 

Shovels,  spades,  scoops,  etc 1.73  283  488.42 

Safes  and  vault  doors   1.50  303  545.60 

Metal  and  metallic  goods 1.58  294  464.93 

Building  and  structural  iron  work.  .  1.72  306  524.78 

Iron  chairs 1.71  290  495.81 

Iron  fences  and  railings 1.54  306  470.09 

Agricultural  implements 1.70  302  512.69 

Steam   pumps    2.30  302  693.70 

Bicycles    2.08  274  569.78 

Pianos  and  organs   1.4S  296  436.40 

Tinware    1 .3C)  272  368.95 

Cordage,  ropes,  twine,  etc 1.1  I  ."{OO  342.54 

Pottcrv    1.60  304  4S6.17 

Paving  brick    1.60  234  374.08 

Building  brick 1.63  230  375.55 

Fire  brick 1.44  298  428.42 

Window    glass,     bottles     and     table 

goods 1 .76  256  450.28 


04 

In  considering  the  foregoing  it  is  necessary  to  remember 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments are  located  in  the  great  centers  of  population 
where  rents  and  numerous  other  items  among  those  that 
make  up  the  annual  cost  of  living  are  more  costly  than  in 
the  anthracite  region.  Bearing  this  in  mind  it  is  impor- 
tant to  observe  that  among  the  seventy-nine  averages  rep- 
resenting daily  earnings  from  the  two  series  which  are 
shown  there  are  but  four  which  exceed  $2,507,  the  average 
daily  earnings  of  contract  miners  in  the  Reading's  col- 
lieries. Of  the  averages  representing  annual  earnings 
there  are  only  six  which  exceed  $652.82,  the  average 
amount  earned  for  full  time  by  the  same  class  of  workmen 
in  the  Reading's  mines,  and  the  shortest  time  represented 
by  these  higher  averages  is  290  days.  Nine  of  the  seventy- 
nine  averages  of  annual  earnings  are  below  $400,  twenty- 
nine  between  $400  and  $499,  thirty  between  $500  and  $599 
and  five  between  $600  and  $652.  The  conclusion  very  for- 
cibly suggested  by  these  comparisons  is  that  contract 
miners  are  now  paid  more  than  any  labor  of  the  same 
quality  under  similar  conditions  anywhere  in  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  Commission  cannot  possibly  be  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  work  of  the  contract  miner  requires  an  high 
degree  of  skill.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  affords  oppor- 
tunity for  the  acquisition  and  exercise  of  skill  far  beyond 
that  necessary  to  make  a  start  in  it.  For  those  who  have 
the  industry  and  intelligence  demanded  in  order  to  reach 
an  high  plane  of  efficiency  and  who  work  diligently  it  not 
only  affords  superior  opportunities  for  promotion  to  posi- 
tions in  the  direction  of  the  industry,  but  while  remaining 
as  contract  miners  they  receive  a  large  differential  addition 
to  their  annual  earnings.  In  this  wide  difference  between 
the  earnings  of  the  least  capable  and  those  who  are  most 


65 

efficient  lies  an  incentive  to  development  that  is  superior 
to  that  in  any  other  industry  of  similar  character.  This 
incentive  has  the  greatest  sociological  as  well  as  economic 
value,  and  it  must  not  be  eliminated  at  the  demand  of  per- 
sons actuated  by  principles  which  would  confine  the  highest 
efficiency  and  the  highest  capacity  for  individual  develop- 
ment within  limits  set  by  average  or  less  than  average 
diligence  and  capacity. 

There  is  better  evidence  that  the  contract  miners,  and 
indeed  all  of  the  employees  of  the  anthracite  mines,  are  well 
paid  than  could  be  derived  from  comparative  statistics  of 
wages  or  earnings.  This  evidence  exists  in  the  fact,  fre- 
quently admitted  by  all  parties  to  the  submission,  that  the 
region  is  over-stocked  with  labor.  Surplus  labor  does  not 
accumulate  where  the  inducements  are  not  genuine  and 
substantial.  No  proof  that  the  wages  and  conditions  are 
good  could  be  more  absolute  than  the  common  admission 
that  men  have  come  there  and  remained  there  until  the 
supply  of  labor  is  greater  than  the  market  for  anthracite 
will  justify.  No  part  of  the  broad  area  of  this  busy  and 
prosperous  country  is  closed  to  the  immigrants  who  flock 
to  the  anthracite  region  or  to  the  children  of  those  who 
worked  in  the  mines  in  former  decades  or  to  those  born 
to  the  present  generation  of  mine  workers.  Yet  to  this 
region  immigrants  still  come  in  large  numbers  and  in  it 
remain,  with  but  rare  exceptions,  all  who  ever  become  a 
part  of  its  chief  industry,  with  their  children  and  their 
children's  children.  If  during  the  rare  occasions  when  the 
normal  progress  of  industry  is  interrupted  by  struggles 
similar  to  that  of  1902  any  of  them  are  forced  temporarily 
to  seek  a  living  elsewhere,  the  fact  that  they  almost  in- 
variably take  the  first  opportunity  to  return  is  one  of  com- 
mon knowledge.  During  the  months  from  May  to  October 
of  last  year  thousands  of  miners  souglit  and  obtained  em- 


66 

ployment  elsewhere,  but  when  work  was  resumed  there  was 
scarcely  a  working  place,  except  those  which  in  the  wanton- 
ness of  intoxication  with  newly-acquired  power  the  union 
leaders  had  caused  to  be  rendered  inaccessible  by  the  rising 
waters,  which  was  not  immediately  sought  and  occupied  by 
its  former  tenant.  For  years  the  great  and  growing  indus- 
tries of  the  United  States  have  bid  against  one  another  for 
labor.  Since  the  close  of  the  last  period  of  depression  there 
has  been  no  time  when  the  man  of  vigorous  impulse  and 
strong  and  willing  muscles  could  not  choose  his  location 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  would  labor.  If  the  anthracite 
mine  workers  are  underpaid,  if  the  conditions  under  which 
they  labor  are  not  desirable  conditions,  if  their  employers 
are  cruel  and  grasping,  why  have  none  of  the  numerous 
avcDues  of  escape  from  all  these  evils  been  utilized?  Why 
did  not  the  complainants  substitute  for  one  among  their 
horde  of  witnesses  to  inconsequential  facts  a  single  indi- 
vidual who  had  left  the  anthracite  region  to  mine  bitumi- 
nous coal  or  to  labor  in  some  of  the  many  fields  of  industry 
which  have  lately  sought  vainly  for  additional  workmen? 
Why  is  it  that  all  the  information  before  the  Commission 
in  regard  to  men  who  left  the  anthracite  field  for  other 
work  is  that  whether  they  went  to  the  soft  coal  fields  or 
elsewhere  they  hurried  back  to  their  old  employment  at  the 
first  word  of  the  termination  of  the  strike?  These  are  in- 
quiries to  which  the  theories  of  the  complainants  afford  no 
response.  That  the  answers,  now  thoroughly  understood, 
are  inconsistent  with  those  theories  and  leave  them  utterly 
discredited  is  apparent  to  any  practical  man. 

HOURS  OF  LABOE. 

The  demand  for  a  reduction  of  the  length  of  the  work- 
ing day  to  eight  hours  applies  to  "all  employees  paid  by 
the  hour,  day  or  week,"  and  so  far  as  the  Philadelphia  and 


67 

Eeading  Coal  and  Iron  Company  is  concerned  this  includes 
all  employees  except  contract  miners  and  the  relatively 
few  laborers  employed  by  the  latter.  Much  that  has  been 
suggested  in  this  argument  in  relation  to  the  compensation 
of  those  who  work  under  contract  is  equally  applicable  to 
this  demand  and  will  not  be  repeated. 

It  is  necessary  to  recognize  at  the  outset  that  the  demand 
for  an  eight  hour  day  in  the  anthracite  industry  has  no 
genuine  relation  to  a  similar  demand  in  occupations  in 
which  the  possibility  of  regularity  in  production,  is  greater 
or  in  which  it  is  practicable  to  work  substantially  the  full 
number  of  hours  adopted  as  the  standard  on  every  day  on 
which  a  start  is  made.  The  usual  interpretation  of  the 
demand  for  an  eight  hour  standard  in  industries  in  which 
some  irregularity  is  essential  is  that  it  means  that  the  num- 
ber of  hours  worked  per  week  shall  bo  but  forty-eight. 
Now  forty-eight  hours  per  week  for  fifty-two  weeks 
amounts  to  2,496  hours,  a  number  equaled  during  the  year 
covered  by  the  statistics  asked  for  by  the  Commission  in 
but  one  of  the  Heading's  collieries.  This  colliery,  the  West 
Brookside,  worked  on  280  days  and  made  a  total  of  2,504 
hours.  Two  collieries  made  2,425  and  2,402  hours  respec- 
tively in  274  and  269  days.  Of  the  others  seventeen  made 
more  than  2,300  but  less  than  2,400  hours,  nine  made  be- 
tween 2,200  and  2,299,  and  eight  made  less  than  2,200, 
half  of  them  less  than  2,000.  The  average  of  the  thirty- 
seven  collieries  was  2,250  hours  or  9.86  per  cent  less  than 
the  equivalent  of  forty-eight  hours  per  week  for  fifty-two 
weeks.  The  following  statement  shows  for  each  colliery 
the  number  of  days  on  which  starts  were  made,  tlie  total 
number  of  hours  worked  and  the  average  nuinlxT  of  hours 
per  start  during  the  year  from  November  1,  1900,  to  Octo- 
ber 31,  1901,  inclusive: 


68 


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69 

The  contention  of  the  complainants  is  apparently  that 
with  a  reduced  standard  day  the  same  number  of  hours 
could  be  attained  by  working  more  days.  The  weakness  of 
this  argument  is  evident  when  the  uneven  demand  for  an- 
thracite, the  heavy  cost  of  storing  it,  in  any  way  except  in 
the  yards  of  the  retail  dealers,  many  of  whom  are  unable 
to  bear  the  interest  cost  of  any  considerable  anticipation 
of  the  demands  of  consumers,  and  the  peculiar  dependence 
of  the  mining  industry  on  railway  transportation  are  borne 
in  mind.  The  necessity  of  some  method  by  which  extraor- 
dinary demands  for  domestic  fuel  can  be  met  without  aug- 
menting the  cost  of  production  by  a  further  increase  in 
breaker  capacity  has  been  amply  demonstrated  during  the 
current  season.  The  only  way  in  which  this  can  be  accom- 
plished under  the  conditions  governing  the  operations  of 
this  respondent  is  by  a  temporary  increase  in  the  duration 
of  the  work  day.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Eeading, 
because  its  output  is  limited,  not  as  in  the  case  of  other 
companies  by  the  mining  capacity,  but  by  the  capacity  of 
the  breakers  to  clean  and  prepare  the  product.  The  differ- 
ence in  this  respect  is  due  to  the  geological  features  of  the 
Schuylkill  region  which  compel  the  hoisting  of  large  quan- 
tities of  refuse  that  w^here  the  veins  are  flat  can  be  left  in 
the  mines.  Under  the  most  favorable  conditions  and  with 
the  steadiest  possible  demand  for  anthracite  it  is  wholly 
unlikely  that  in  any  future  period  of  twelve  consecutive 
months  it  will  be  possible  to  work  the  breakers  more  hours 
than  were  attained  during  the  year  that  ended  with  October 
31,  1901.  Certainly  it  will  not  be  practicable  materially 
to  increase  the  number  of  days  on  which  starts  are  made 
while  the  demand  of  the  employees  for  extraordinary  holi- 
days, such  as  those  taken  on  account  of  religious  festivals, 
circuses,  county  fairs  and  Mitchell  days,  makes  an  annual 
total  of  no  less  llian  sixteen  days.     A  rcduclioii  in  the  hours 


70 

would  certainly  have  the  effect  of  diminishing  the  output 
of  this  company  and  as  an  incident  it  would  necessarily 
shorten  the  day  of  the  contract  miners,  whose  average  day 
at  present  does  not  exceed  seven  hours,  and  correspond- 
ingly impair  their  earning  capacity.  It  has  been  suggested 
at  various  times  by  the  complainants  that  a  reduction  in 
the  length  of  the  standard  day  would  increase  the  earnings 
of  per  diem  employees  by  requiring  more  days  labor  to 
produce  the  same  output.  This  argument  obviously  re- 
futes another  of  their  contentions  which  is  that  the  reduc- 
tion would  so  far  increase  the  intensity  of  effort  as  to  pre- 
vent any  diminution  in  the  daily  product.  This  argument, 
if  valid  under  any  circumstances,  could  not  be  applicable 
to  the  present  case  because  as  has  been  shown  the  average 
number  of  hours  worked  per  week  is  much  below  that  at- 
tained where  the  eight  hour  standard  is  steadily  enforced. 
No  one  would  venture  to  assume  that  within  reasonable 
limits  it  makes  any  difference  to  the  man  who  works  no 
more  than  forty-eight  hours  per  week  whether  this  total  is 
made  up  by  strict  adherence  to  the  average  or  by  somewhat 
varying  items.  It  is  true,  however,  that  a  greater  aggregate 
number  of  days  work  would  have  to  be  obtained  during 
the  year  in  order  to  secure  the  present  output.  As  this 
addition  could  not  be  secured  by  materially  increasing  the 
number  of  starts  it  would  have  to  be  obtained,  by  the  en- 
largement of  the  breaker  capacity  and  the  employment  of 
more  men.  Thus  without  in  any  way  increasing  the  earn- 
ings of  this  class  of  workmen,  most  of  whose  earnings  are 
below  those  of  contract  miners,  the  change  would  attract 
additional  labor  to  the  anthracite  fields  and  increase  the 
price  of  domestic  fuel  by  augmenting  the  cost  of  its  pro- 
duction. It  would  also  reduce  the  productive  capacity  of 
those  working  under  contract  and  their  earnings  would  be 
similarly  affected. 


71 

EECOGXITION    OF   THE    UXiON. 

Although  an  attempt  Avas  made  in  the  pleadings  to  inject 
a  demand  for  the  formal  recognition  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America,  through  a  contract  with  that  organi- 
zation, into  the  matters  referred  to  this  Commission,  it  was 
distinctly  excluded  by  the  terms  of  the  Submission  and  has 
been  practically  if  not  expressly  abandoned  by  the  com- 
plainants. Therefore  it  need  only  be  discussed  at  the 
present  time  in  so  far  as  the  principles  and  practices  of 
this  organization  have  a  bearing  upon  the  general  situation 
in  the  anthracite  region.  In  a  certain  sense  the  United 
Mine  Workers  was  long  ago  recognized  by  the  operators. 
The  painful  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  this  exotic 
growth  in  the  anthracite  district,  which  could  be  brought 
home  to  the  general  public  only  by  a  serious  and  prolonged 
scarcity  of  hard  coal,  was  long  previously  forced  upon 
those  who  have  the  immediate  direction  of  the  industry. 
Ever  since  the  settlement  of  the  strike  of  1900  they  have 
felt  the  weight  of  its  power  to  impair  the  efficiency  of  the 
mining  methods  and  to  bring  demoralization  and  friction 
into  relations  that  had  previously  been  orderly  and  friendly. 
Jn  their  conscientious  efforts  to  avoid  or  mitigate  these 
efEects  the  officers  of  the  respondents  have  repeatedly  con- 
ferred with  committees  from  the  various  local  unions  and 
with  Messrs.  ^Mitchell,  Fahy,  Nichols  and  Duffy,  the  offi- 
cers of  the  organization  having  highest  jurisdiction  in  the 
anthracite  district.  But  "recognition'^  in  the  sense  in 
which- it  is  used  by  the  labor  leaders  means  the  execution 
of  a  formal  contrad  with  the  organization  that  is  recog- 
nized. The  experience  of  tlie  coal  mining  com])anies  with 
the  United  Mine  Workers  aud  tlic  conferences  they  have 
held  have  not  led  their  officers  to  believe  that  such  a  con- 
tract with  that  organization  would  be  beneficial  to  their 
employees,  to  the  general  piiMic  or  to  the  security  holder? 


72 

whom  they  represent.    They  accept  the  dictum  of  Mr.  Mit- 
chell that; — 

"A  labor  union,   like  a  man,  must  be  judged  by  what  it  has 
done,  by  the  life  it  has  lived."* 

This  assumes  the  possibility  of  discriminating  between 
unions  whose  principles  and  conduct  are  good  and  those 
which  do  not  come  within  that  category.  It  certainly  sug- 
gests that  just  as  business  relations  with  some  men  are  not 
to  be  thought  of  there  may  be  labor  unions  with  which  it 
would  be  unwise  and  dangerous  to  contract.  What  is  the 
consequence  of  a  detailed  scrutiny  of  the  practices  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America  and  its  principles  as  indi- 
cated by  its  acts?  It  is  an  unincorporated  organization, 
and  its  chief  executive  frankly  announces  that  it  shelters 
itself  in  irresponsibility  because  responsibility  in  law  might 
prove  its  destruction.  A  contract  with  it  is  utterly  unen- 
forcible  as  against  the  union  should  the  latter  choose  to 
violate  it.  More  serious  perhaps  than  this  is  the  fact  that 
under  such  a  situation  the  final  interpretation  of  the  con- 
tract in  case  of  a  disagreement  must  be  practically  left  to 
one  of  the  parties,  and  it  would  be  very  easy  to  mask  behind 
an  ex  parte  interpretation  a  refusal  to  abide  by  an  agree- 
ment which  the  organization  wished  to  overthrow. 

Discussing,  in  a  formal  address  at  its  last  annual  con- 
vention, the  suggestions  concerning  the  incorporation  of 
the  body  of  which  he  is  the  head  Mr.  Mitchell  quoted  with 
approval  an  expression  by  the  principal  counsel  of  his 
organization  before  the  Commission  in  which  the  latter 
said: 

"The  demand  for  the  incorporation  of  trade  unions  is  the  last 
trench  of  those  who  oppose  organized  labor.  It  is  impudent  and 
presumptuous.  No  friend  of  trade  unionism  ever  believed  in  it  or 
advocated  it,  or  called  for  it.  It  is  demanded  to-day  by  those 
interests  and  those  enemies  who  have  used  every  means  at  their 

^'Testimony  p.  535. 


73 

command  to  oppose  unionism,  to  counteract  its  influence  and  de- 
stroy it.  How  the  labor  organizations  shall  manage  their  own 
aflfairs  is  not  the  business  of  the  corporations  or  the  employers. 
This  new  demand  for  the  incorporation  of  labor  unions  is  not  only 
unjust  and  unreasonable,  but  it  is  impudent  and  insulting  to  the 
last  degree." 

It  may  be  helpful  to  set  against  this  unreasoned  invective 
a  few  of  the  expressions  of  those  whom  it  places  in  "the 
last  trench  of  those  who  oppose  organized  labor"  and  char- 
acterizes as  "impudent"  and  "presumptuous"  enemies  of 
labor.  One  of  them  chances  to  be  Mr.  E.  E.  Clark,  the 
Grand  Chief  of  the  Order  of  Eailway  Conductors,  who 
testified  before  the  recent  Industrial  Commission,  in  answer 
to  a  question  concerning  the  incorporation  of  labor  unions: 

"I  think  perhaps  it  will  be  some  time  before  the  idea  will  be 
generally  accepted.  At  the  same  time  it  looks  to  me  as  if  the 
logical  conclusion  is  the  incorporation  of  the  trade  unions  and 
labor  organizations  vmder  conditions  which  place  them  on  a  fair 
basis  as  compared  with  incorporations  that  are  for  pecuniary 
profit  or  the  incorporations  by  which  the  men  are  employed."* 

Another  presumptuous  enemy  of  organized  labor  is  Mr. 

G.  W.  Perkins,  president  of  the  Cigar  Makers'  International 

Union.     On  the  same  subject  he  said  to  the  Industrial 

Commission : 

"I  believe  they  should  be  incorporated.  In  the  first  place,  trade 
unions  have  nothing  to  hide;  they  are  not  violators  of  the  law. 
.  .  .  .  If  incorporated  it  would  give  us  many  advantages. 
.  .  .  .  I  favor  being  incorporated,  first,  because  it  would 
legalize  us;  second,  give  us  more  standing  in  the  courts.  We  are 
willing  to  be  brought  into  court  any  minute." h 

Then  comes  the  president  of  the  Amalgamated  Asso- 
ciation of  Iron,  Steel  and  Tin  Workers,  who  must  also 
be  a  carefully  disguised  enemy  of  labor.  He  said  in 
answer  to  similar  inquiries  by  the  same  body: 

"I  hope  tlie  time  will  come  when  the  Amalgamated  Association 
will  be  aide  to  take  out  letters  of  incorporation  and  become  a 
chartered  institution It  will  obviate  the  necessity  for 

'Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  iv,  p.  IIG. 
■fibid.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  171-2. 


74 

strikes;  do  away  with  the  strike  entirely.  It  would  bring  the 
manufacturer  and  his  employee  closer  together,  into  more  friendly 
relations.  It  would  enable  them  to  see  .  .  .  .  that  as  one 
prospers  the  other  prospers;  as  one  suffers  the  other  necessarily 

suffers  also Our  people  are  not  ready  for  it.     They 

are  not  educated  up  to  the  point  yet."* 

Mr.  Mitchell  declines  to  aid  in  the  educational  process, 
but  clearly  believes  himself  justified  in  abandoning  in  the 
discussion  of  this  proposal  his  habit  of  decorous  speech 
and  giving  the  sanction  of  his  authority  to  the  passion  and 
vituperation  that  another,  less  responsible  than  he,  has 
brought  to  the  support  of  the  present  prejudice.  A  differ- 
ent course  has  been  chosen  by  Honorable  Carroll  D.Wright, 
the  Federal  Commissioner  of  Labor.  He,  also,  was  asked 
by  the  Industrial  Commission  concerning  his  views  on  the 
incorporation  of  labor  unions  and  he  spoke,  in  part,  as 
follows : 

"I  believe,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  express  an  opinion,  that  trade 
unionism  will  take  a  very  great  stride  in  securing  the  respect  and 
co-operation  of  the  public  when  it  desires  to  incorporate.  There 
are  cases  where  incorporation  would  result  in  success,  when  the 
acts  of  voluntary  associations  would  be  apt  to  result  in  failure. 
It  would  dignify  the  whole  business,  to  say  the  least,  and  protect 
the  funds  and  protect  the  membership."! 

If  these  expressions  are  regarded  anywhere  as  implying 
antagonism  to  organized  labor  so  much  the  worse  for  those 
who  take  that  view. 

THE  MONOPOLY  SOUGHT. 

The  United  Mine  Workers  seeks  to  include  within  its 
ranks  every  employee  connected  with  the  production  of 
coal  or  coke  anywhere  in  the  United  States  and  thus  to 
establish  a  monopoly  in  commodities  of  the  most  vital 
necessity  which  would  be  more  absolute  and  powerful  than 
any  that  the  world  ever  saw.$ 

*Ihid.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  387-8. 

■fibid.,  vol.  vii,  p.  8. 

$Mr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  pp.  524-6. 


75 

That  this  purpose  is  never  lost  sight  of  has  been  made 
abundantly  evident  by  the  testimony  before  this  Commis- 
sion. At  the  annual  convention  of  the  organization  held 
at  Indianapolis  during  last  January,  Mr.  John  Fahy,  an 
emissary  from  the  bituminous  region,  who  now  occupies 
the  position  of  president  of  one  of  the  three  anthracite 
districts,  used  the  following  language: 

"You  now  have  the  anthracite  men  with  you  to  reach  out  and 
bring  into  the  fold  all  others.  I  hope  that  it  will  not  be  long  until 
every  miner  in  the  United  States  is  a  member  of  the  United  Mine 

Workers   of   America It   would   be   criminal    if   this 

organization  did  not  conduct  its  business  with  that  end  in  view. 
We  are  not  conducting  our  business  in  the  interest  of  the  oper- 
ators, and  we  should  not  care  what  they  think  of  us." 

Vice-President  Lewis,  a  general  officer  of  the  organiza- 
tion, made  clear  to  tlic  watchful  public,  through  a  speech 
at  the  same  convention,  the  precise  purposes  for  which  the 
labor  monopoly  is  sought  and  the  methods  that  are  to  be 
employed  when  it  has  been  attained.  This  portion  of  his 
address  was  as  follows : 

"It  is  said  that  the  market  price  regulates  the  wages  and  the 
conditions  of  employment.  Who  is  it  that  makes  the  market  price 
now  ?  It  is  rhe  operator.  We  want  to  change  that.  We  want  to 
make  ourselves  so  strong  that  we  can  control  the  market  price  of 
our  product.  We  will  then  fix  a  standard,  and  we  can  take  a 
vacation  until  the  price  comes  up  to  that  standard." 

There  was  nothing  novel  in  this  doctrine,  for  it  was  but 
repeating  declarations  made  to  the  United  States  Indus- 
trial Commission  by  Mr.  Mitchell  very  soon  after  his  suc- 
cession to  the  presidency  of  the  Mine  Workers.  To  an 
inquiry  wliether  his  organization  had  "followed  tlie  arbi- 
tration theory  to  the  fullest  extent  in  all  cases  before  re- 
sorting to  a  strike,"  he  replied : 

"Not  in  all  cases.  It  is  my  oi>iiiinn  lluil  -.xt  times  \\!h'ii  the 
market  has  become  so  demoralized  and  so  cliaidie  that  il  has  been 
necessary  to  engage  in  a  general  sii>])eiisi()ii  of  work  in  order  to 
restore  prices  in  the  market,  to  make  it  possible  for  employers  to 
pay  living  wages,  in  that  case  arbitration,  I  understand,  has  not 


76 

been  offered  by  the  miners,  for  the  reason  that  it  could  not  have 
any  good  result.  Prices  have  been  so  demoralized  at  certain  sea- 
sons, and  run  along  for  a  year  at  a  time,  that  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  employers  to  pay  higher  rates  of  wages  unless  a  suspen- 
sion took  effect,  to  take  out  of  the  market  the  coal  that  was 
stocked  there,  as  was  the  case  in  1897."* 

Before  the  same  Commission  Mr.  Mitchell  also  sup- 
ported the  principle  of  sympathetic  strikes  in  terms  clearly 
pointing  to  the  same  general  intention  absolutely  to  con- 
trol the  labor  market  and  through  this  to  make  every  phase 
of  the  industry  subservient  to  the  power  of  his  association. 
His  expressions  on  this  branch  of  the  subject  were  as 
follows : 

"Sympathetic  strikes  are,  in  our  judgment,  not  only  justifiable, 
but  many  times  absolutely  necessary,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
the  capacity  of  the  coal  mines  is  so  much  greater  than  the  possi- 
ble consumption  of  coal  that  when  one  district  is  compelled  to 
engage  in  a  strike,  either  in  opposition  to  a  reduction  of  wages  or 
for  an  increase  in  wages,  the  markets  can  be  supplied  by  mines  in 
other  districts,  and  this  has  often  been  done  without  loss  or  profit 
to  the  employers  that  engage  in  the  contest 

"Another  reason  which  makes  sympathetic  strikes  justifiable  is 
the  fact  that  coal  is  sold  on  such  close  margins  that  where  the 
operators  of  one  district  secure,  by  strike  or  otherwise,  a  mining 
rate  that  is  less  than  that  paid  in  competing  districts,  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time  until  the  miners  in  other  districts  must 
accept  either  a  less  rate  of  wages  or  the  business  will  be  diverted 
from  the  districts  to  which  it  properly  belongs  and  will  be  secured 
by  the  operators  paying  the  lower  rate  of  wages."f 

All  of  the  foregoing  extracts  from  his  testimony  before 
the  Industrial  Commission  were  approved  by  Mr.  Mitchell 
during  his  cross-examination. | 

The  purpose  to  monopolize  the  fuel  supply  has  not  been 
a  merely  barren  doctrine.  The  faith  of  the  leaders  in  the 
vastness  of  the  pbwer  to  be  gained  by  such  a  concentration 
of  industrial  control  has  been  proved  by  rugged  efforts  to 

*Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  xii, 
p.  36. 

fReport  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  xii, 
p.  37. 

^Testimony  pp.  98,  99,  101,  102. 


77 

overcome  the  obstacles  in  their  path.  One  of  these  ob- 
stacles was  the  peace  and  content  that  existed  in  the  anthra- 
cite region  prior  to  1900  and  another  the  arbitration  agree- 
ment between  the  employees  of  G.  B.  Markle  &  Co.  and  that 
company.  Both  were  overcome.  Another  obstacle  which 
existed  in  the  anthracite  region  was  a  labor  organization, 
composed  of  steammen,  that  did  not  recognize  the  author- 
ity of  the  United  Mine  Workers.  The  device  adopted  to 
destroy  this  union  and  to  compel  its  members  to  become 
subservient  to  the  monopoly  still  amazes  by  its  audacity 
those  who  listen  to  the  frequent  assertions  of  leaders  like 
Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Gompers  that  the  man  who  takes  the 
place  of  a  workman  who  has  struck  for  higher  wages  or 
what  he  regards  as  improved  conditions  of  employment  is 
a  social  outcast,  one  to  be  ostracized  and  "boycotted"  to  the 
extreme  limit  of  the  law.  It  will  have  to  be  told  in  the 
language  used,  under  oath,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Duffy,  one  of 
the  district  presidents  of  the  anthracite  field  and  a  prom- 
inent participant  in  the  matters  which  he  relates.  Before 
this  Commission  he  testified : 

"I  want  to  say  that  in  1901,  i  believe  it  was  1901,  the  firemen 
struck;   they  struck  in  the  upper   region,   Luzerne,   Lackawanna 

and  down  in  the  Schuylkill  region They  came  in  the 

Hazleton  region  and  I,  as  the  president  of  the  district,  went  to 
the  firemen  that  had  served  notice  on  the  companies,  the  Lehigh 
Valley, — they  wanted  eight  hours'  worK  there  and  gave  only  ten 
liours'  notice, — and  I  went  in  behind  the  stockade  without  per- 
mission and  served  notice  on  the  firemen  if  they  quit  work  that 
our  union  would  put  men  in  their  places "* 

Thus,  officially,  in  the  person  of  one  of  its  liighest  offi- 
cers, to  destroy  an  obstacle  to  the  monopoly  toward  which 
its  ambitions  lead,  this  organization  violated  the  now  moral 
law  advocated  by  its  president,  and  other  labor  leaders, 
which  makes  every  workman  the  puppet  of  a  majority  of 
his  fellows.     That  tucii  wci'c  supplied  io  take  the  places 

'Testimony  p.  9082. 


of  striking  firemen*  is  clear  from  tlie  testimony.  A  few 
extracts  from  Mr.  Mitchell's  own  testimony  will  indicate 
how  utterly  this  action  violated  a  fundamental  article  of 
his  creed.    The  following  should  be  sufficient : 

"We  regard  the  man  who  works  during  a  strike,  who  takes  an- 
othier  man's  place — 

"Q.    ( Interruptmg. )      No,  no — the  man  who  keeps  his  o^vn  place. 

"A.  Who  does  what? 

"Q.  Who  keeps  his  own  place. 

"A.  In  either  event  we  regard  him  as  an  unfair  worker.  We 
think  the  man  is  blind  to  his  own  interests.  We  think  he  is  join- 
ing forces  with  the  employer  to  defeat  the  fair  ends  of  those  who 
go  on  strike.  In  other  words,  he  is  usually  termed  by  the  working 
people  and  others  a  'scab.'  "f 

"Q.  Why  should  you  call  a  man  a  'scab'  who  differs  from  his 
fellow  workmen  as  to  the  wisdom  of  continuing  to  earn  a  living  for 
himself  under  such  conditions  as  he  thinks  are  reasonable,  even 
though  he  may  be  mistaken  in  that  opinion,  if  you  choose  ? 

"A.  It  is  simply  a  general  appellation  for  every  man  who  works 
when  another  one  is  on  strike.  He  is  looked  upon,  and  I  think 
justly,  in  the  same  light  that  Benedict  Arnold  was  looked  upon, 
or  any  traitor.  He  is  a  man  who  fails  to  stand  for  the  movement 
that  the  people  stand  for,  and,  after  all,  the  majority  of  the 
workers  in  any  one  particular  community  reflect  the  public  senti- 
ment of  that  community.  It  is  the  movement  of  the  people  of 
that  community,  and  if  a  man  wants  to  desert  his  fellow  workers 
and  wants  to  try  to  prevent  them  from  accomplishing  good  ends, 
then  he  is  justly  looked  upon  with  disfavor  by  those  who  are  right, 
because  his  working  does  not  aftect  himself  alone.  If  it  only  af- 
fected himself,  it  would  be  a  diflferent  proposition,  but  the  fact 
that  he  works  helps  to  defeat  the  objects  of  the  men  who  go  on 
strike."t 

"Q.  Ah !  that  is  it.  But  I  do  not  think  you  would  fling  a  term 
of  opprobrium  at  a  fellow  workman  because  he  thinks  differently 
from  those  who  belong  to  your  union. 

"A.  I  would  regard  them  as  'scabs;'  yes,  sir.  That  is  my  per- 
sonal opinion. "§ 

"Q.  Ought  their  lives  and  the  lives  of  their  wives  and  children 
to  be  made  unendurable  ? 


*Mr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  pp.  2617-8. 
fTestimony  p.  373. 
^Testimony  p.  374. 
§Testiinony  p.  379. 


79 

"A.  I  think  those  wives  and  children  had  better  ask  their 
fathers. 

"Q.  That  is  your  answer — 

"A.  I  think  it  is  they  who  have  made  their  lives  unendurable."* 

Mr.  JMitcheirs  testimony  is  full  of  declarations  of  this 
characterf  and  his  opinion  was  expressly  approved  by  the 
president  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  who  was 
called  to  testify  as  an  expert  in  labor  organization  doc- 
trines and  methods  on  behalf  of  the  striking  mine  workers.^ 

Of  course  it  will  not  surprise  any  one  that  an  organiza- 
tion whose  officers  would  detail  men  to  perform  acts  which 
they  regard  as  worthy  of  such  opproln'ium  would  resort  to 
extreme  tactics  to  prevent  the  development  of  a  rival  or- 
ganization in  the  region  conquered  by  such  measures.  Dr. 
Eoberts,  a  very  friendly  observer  of  union  practices,  is 
authority  for  the  statement  that  dissensions  between  the 
laborers  or  the  helpers  in  the  mines  and  the  miners  them- 
selves have  affected  the  action  of  the  organization;  the 
laborers  complaining  that  the  miners  work  too  little  time 
and  leave  at  an  unseasonable  hour  imposing  upon  them 
the  Avhole  of  the  lal)or.§  The  result  of  these  dissensions 
Dr.  Eoberts  expressed  as  follows: 

"Hence  the  question  arises,  is  the  laborer  always  to  carry  the 
heavy  end  of  the  burden  and  only  get  one-third  of  the  face  value 
of  the  due  bill?  Against  this  there  is  a  revolt.  The  laborers 
demand  half,  and  there  is  a  possibility  of  their  forming  an  inde- 
pendent organization  upon  this  issue.  This  would  seriously  im- 
pair the  influence  and  power  of  the  union,  if  not  utterly  destroy 
its  usefulness."|| 

The  absolutely  certain  way  to  prevent  this  threatened 
rebellion  on  lue  part  of  the  miners'  laborers  is  to  secure 

♦Testimony  p.  392. 
fTestimony  pp.  384,  470  and  480. 

^Testimony  pp.  3158  and  3159.     See  also  testimony  of  Father 
Curran,  a  strong  union  sympathizer,  p.  1592. 
§Testimony  pp.  822-3. 
I  [Testimony  p.  829. 


80 

contracts  with  the  operators  under  which  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  enforce  the  despotic  authority  sought.  Under  such 
contracts  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  new  organization  to 
be  formed  and  substantially  impossible  for  any  workmen 
to  remain  outside  of  the  ranlcs  of  the  monopoly.  This 
would  be  especially  true  if  by  persistent  pressure  the  union 
should  be  able  to  force  the  anthracite  operators,  as  it  has 
some  of  those  in  the  soft  coal  fields,  to  collect  the  dues  and 
assessments  of  the  organization.  After  these  examples  no 
one  will  be  astonished  to  learn  that  the  United  Mine 
"Workers  lately,  at  a  convention  in  Colorado,  sought  the 
adhesion  of  coal  miners  who  were  members  of  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners,  an  effort  which  if  successful  would 
have  destroyed  another  labor  organization.* 

Another  way  to  promote  the  desired  monopoly  is  to  force 
individuals  into  the  ranks  of  the  organization.  Mr.  Mit- 
chell has  assisted  in  showing  how  this  is  accomplished.  The 
following  was  originally  in  his  testimony  before  the  Indus- 
trial Commission,  but  it  was  acquiesced  in  when  read  to 
him  on  cross-examination: 

"We  believe  in  a  conciliatory  policy  and  make  every  effort  to 
induce  non-union  miners  to  affiliate  themselves  with  our  organiza- 
tion. If  they  will  not  accept  our  proffers  of  friendship  and 
refuse  to  become  members  of  our  organization,  we  sometimes  op- 
pose them.  By  this  I  mean  we  do  not  make  the  same  efforts  to 
secure  for  them  higher  rates  of  wages  or  better  conditions  of  em- 
ployment. In  some  cases  miners  have  declined  to  work  in  the 
same  mines."f 

A  notice,  dated  April  5,  1901,  by  Archibald  Local  No. 
1649  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  was  posted  at  the  head 


*Mr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  pp.  542-3. 

•(■Testimony  p.  93.     Report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Com- 
mission, vol.  xii,  p.  32. 


81 

of  a  shaft  that  every  workman  who  had  chosen  independ- 
ence could  see  what  was  in  store  for  him/'' 

"Archibald  Local  No.  1G49,  U.  M.  VV.  of  A. 

"SCRANTON,  Pa.,  April  5,  1901. 
"Notice. 
"There  will  be  a  special  meeting  of  the  above-named  local  at 
Janes  Hall,  Archibald  mines,  Saturday  morning  at  11  o'clock,  and 
all  men  employed  in  and  around  the  mines  not  members  of  the 
above-named   local   are  requested  to  be  present  and  join;    if  not, 
they  will  be  stopped  from  work  Monday,  April  the  8th,  1901. 
"By  order  of 

"M.  H.  Healy,  President. 
"A.  J.  Bayliss;  iiecrctary." 

Clearly  there  need  be  no  misunderstanding  of  the  pur- 
poses of  this  organization.  The  declaration  of  its  leaders 
and  its  constitution  have  been  practically  applied  by  its 
local  unions  and  its  national  officers.  It  aims  to  control 
the  output  of  coal,  and  by  exercising  this  control  to  keep 
prices  at  a  high  level  in  order  that  the  excess  over  the 
normal  prices  may  be  added  to  the  earnings  of  its  members. 
If  such  a  monopoly  of  the  fuel  supply  of  the  homes  and  fac- 
tories of  the  country  is  desirable,  it  may  be  that  the  organi- 
zation is  performing  a  useful  work,  but  if  otherwise,  the 
United  Mine  Workers  should  receive  no  sympathy  from 
those  who  would  necessarily  be  the  victims  of  its  success. 

EESTRICTING  EFFICIENCY. 

The  history  of  tlie  United  Mine  Workers  in  the  anthra- 
cite region  contains  a  succession  of  instances  illustrating 
every  device  by  which  the  exceptional  workman  is  com- 
pelled to  limit  his  efficiency  to  a  standard  attainable  by  the 
less  capal)]e  and  employers  are  compelled  to  pursue  anti- 
quated methods.     Mr.  Mitchell  has  admitted  that  his  or- 

*Testimony  p.  (J.'jo:?.  Vov  other  notices  or  resolutions  of  a 
similar  character,  some  of  thein  equally  imperative  in  time,  see 
p]).  139,  102,  16G,  6304,  G306  and  8331.  Among  many  exainples 
of  specific  efforts  in  tlie  same  direction  are  those  n'hited  on  pp. 
2395,  52G6,  5844.  CO.")."),  (ills.  (191.")  and  7t'.()-i. 


82 

ganization  is  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  mining  ma- 
chinery* and  Dr.  Eoberts,  the  witness  for  the  complain- 
ants who  followed  him.  declared  that 

"iliners  often  have  two  and  three  laborers  to  work  for  them, 
but  when  a  miner  takes  a  contract  which  enables  him  to  hire 
miners  and  laborers  he  is  disqualified  as  a  member  of  the  union, 
although  he  pays  the  standard  wage  in  the  colliery  to  the  men 
he  hires. "f 

The  testimony  taken  by  the  Commission  establishes  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  contradiction  that  the  union  has 
forbidden  the  ambitious  and  capable  miner  from  con- 
tracting for  work  in  which  lie  would  have  to  employ  more 
than  two  laborers!  and  that  it  opposes  his  having  more 
than  one.§  The  number  of  ears  which  the  miner  may  send 
out  has  been  restricted  by  many  of  the  locals,  ||  in  collieries 
where  payment  is  by  weight  money  penalites  have  been 
established  to  prevent  increasing  the  earnings  by  putting 
on  a  large  amount  of  topping,j[  and  men  have  been  fined 
for  working  when  the  breaker  was  idle.**  Under  the  influ- 
ence of  this  organization  the  miners  often  refuse  to  assist 
their  laborers,  they  decline  to  cut  coal  and  rock  on  the  same 
day,  they  refuse  to  work  when  the  breaker  does  not  run,  and 
they  go  home  if  their  laborers  do  not  report  for  duty. 
By  these  devices  they  restrict  their  own  earning  capacity, 
and  it  has  been  shown  that  many  of  them  have  little  desire 
to  earn  more  than  wliat  they  call  "miners'  wages,"  while 
others  are  evidently  restrained  from  the  efforts  necessary 

*Testimony  p.  120.  Another  extract  from  his  testimony  before 
the  L'.  S.  Industrial  Commission.  See  report  of  the  latter,  vol. 
xii,  p.  55. 

tTestimony  p.  849. 

|Mr.  Mitchell.  Testimony  pp.  1G7,  5638  and  5644.  Mr.  W.  H. 
Dettery.     Testimony  p.  1177. 

§Mr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  pp.  209  and  5638. 

||Testimony  pp.  4920,  5444,  6799  and  in  many  other  instances. 

IJTestimony  pp.  5269-70. 

**Testimony  pp.  5438  and  5448. 


83 

to  do  so  by  fear  of  incurring  the  ill-will  of  their  fellows 
and  becoming  the  victims  of  the  displeasure  of  the  organi- 
zation. The  net  result  of  these  efforts  to  reduce  the  output 
of  the  more  capaljle  workmen  is  shown  by  the  following 
table : 

DECREASE  IX  EFFICIEXCY  OF  LABOR.* 

1001.  LSI  10. 

Total  shipments,  long  tons 53,568,001         47,605,204 

Shipments  of  washery  coal,  long  tons.  .  .      2,507,335  1,368,275 

Difference,  product  of  miners  and  in- 
side employees,  long  tons 51.001,206         46,296.929 

Number  of  miners 37,804  30.421 

Number  of  inside  employees 98,464  92,223 

Average    number    of    days    worked    by 

breakers    195  179 

Total    nvimber    of    days    worked    by    all 

miners  7,371,780  0,519,359 

Total  number  of  days  worked  by  all  in- 
side employees 19,200,480         10,507,917 

Average    product    in    long    tons     per 

miner  per  daj' 0.92  7.10 

Average  product  in  long  tons  per  in- 
side employee  jjer  day 2.00  2.80 

EXFORCIXG  THE  NEW  MORAL  LAW. 

Little  need  be  said  concerning  the  details  of  the  reign 
of  terror  that  held  the  anthracite  region  in  its  grasp 
throughout  a  large  portion  of  the  recent  period  of  idleness. 
Some  estimable  gentlemen  who  have  chosen  the  position  of 
advocates  of  the  organization  have  testified  to  the  remark- 
aljlc  peace  and  quiet  which  they  assert  prevailed  through- 
out the  entire  period  of  the  strike.  The  most  satisfactory 
explanation  of  their  testimony  is  that  they  rarely  if  ever 
visited  the  regions  inhabited  by  the  men  who  preferred  to 
work  or  the  roads  traversed  by  them  when  they  ventured 

*Tho  first  three  items  are  shown  by  tables  put  in  evidence  before 
the  Commission  by  Mr.  \\'.  M.  Ruley ;  the  next  tliroo  arc  from  the 
report  of  the  Pennsylvanin  l'>ureau  of  Mines  for  1901,  and  tiic  rest 
have  been  calculated  finiii  llic  otiiers. 


84 

to  go  to  and  from  the  collieries  and  that  in  the  seclusion 
of  their  studies  they  imagined  that  there  was  no  reign  of 
terror  because  they  did  not  witness  many  of  its  atrocities. 
One  of  the  historians  of  the  French  Kevolution  has  shown 
that  many  of  the  Parisians  of  that  time  were  able  to  re- 
main equally  unconscious  of  the  scenes  by  which  they  were 
surrounded.    A  brief  extract  will  perhaps  prove  suggestive : 

"It  is  most  essential  to  grasp  the  fact  that  there  was  no  par- 
ticular difference,  for  the  vast  majority  of  the  population,  in 
living  in  Paris  during  the  Reign  of  Terror  and  at  other  times. 
The  imagination  of  posterity,  steeped  in  tales  of  the  tumbrils 
bearing  their  burden  to  the  guillotine,  and  of  similar  stories  of 
horror,  has  conceived  a  ghastly  picture  of  life  at  that  extraordi- 
nary period,  and  it  is  only  after  living  for  months  amongst  the 
journals,  memoirs  and  letters  of  the  time  that  one  can  realize 
the  fact  that  to  the  average  Parisian  the  necessity  of  getting  his 
dinner    or    his    evening's    amusement    remained    the    paramount 

thought  of  his  daily  life The  Reign  of  Terror  seems 

to  us  an  age  of  imique  experiences,  a  time  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  the  world ;  yet  to  the  great  majority  of  contemporaries 
it  did  not  appear  so;  they  lived  their  ordinary  lives,  and  it  was 
only  in  exceptional  cases  that  the  serenity  of  their  days  was  inter- 
rupted, or  that  their  minds  were  exercised  by  anything  more  than 
the  necessity  of  earning  their  daily  bread."* 

But  France  had  its  reign  of  terror  and  not  much  more 
than  a  century  later,  on  a  different  scale  but  with  identical 
effects  upon  the  minds  and  acts  of  men,  the  anthracite  re- 
gion of  Pennsylvania  was  the  scene  of  another.  Dr.  Roberts 
saw  it,  and  in  his  manly  fashion  refused  to  blink  the  truth. 
He  testified  as  follows : 

"For  three  months  no  outrages  were  perpetrated  until  on  July 
31,  in  Shenandoah,  and  the  troops  were  called  out  on  August  1. 
Since  then  the  reign  of  terror  has  come,  and,  as  Mr.  MacVeagh  has 
said,  increasing  in  intensity  and  ferocity  as  we  come  down  to 
the  fifth  month. "f 

■•'H.   M.   Stephens,   "History   of   tlie   French   Revolution."     Vol- 
ume II,  Chapter  10. 
■j-Testimony  p.  802. 


85 

The  conference  of  clergymen  which  met  at  Hazleton  on 
JSTovember  12,  1903,  and  adopted  the  following  resolutions 
did  not  consist  of  men  who  had  been  blind  to  the  events  of 
the  preceding  months : 

"Resolved,  That  we  should  at  this  time,  as  law-abiding  citizens, 
enter  our  earnest  protest  against  the  boycott,  intimidation  and 
threats  and  violence  that  have  existed  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
during  the  past  five  months  and,  notwithstanding  the  strike  has 
been  declared  off,  still  exist.  We  deplore  the  effort  of  any  per- 
son or  persons  to  create  the  impression  that  the  men  have  not 
been  molested  in  the  exercise  of  their  rights  as  citizens  of  this 
commonwealth. 

"Resolved,  further.  That  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  entire  com- 
munity that  the  deplorable  occurrences  of  the  past  few  months 
should  never  be  repeated,  and  we  call  upon  all  law-abiding  citizens 
to  take  a  firm  stand  in  the  determination  that  all  attempts  to 
abridge  the  liberty  of  the  individual  in  the  anthracite  coal  field 
shall  cease  at  once  and  forever."* 

What  picture  of  an  armed  camp  in  alert  expectation  of 
a  command  to  attack  is  more  graphic  than  the  description 
by  "Squire"  McKelvey,  a  witness  called  in  rebuttal  by  the 
strikers,  of  what  he  saw  from  one  o'clock  in  the  morning 
until  daybreak  in  the  vicinity  of  a  Lehigh  Valley  colliery. 
In  his  own  words  it  is  as  follows: 

"Well,  one  night  I  was  coming  home ;  I  think  it  was  on  the  last 
of  July  or  August;  I  don't  remember  which  now.  It  was  about 
twelve  or  one  o'clock  in  the  morning — twelve  o'clock  Saturday 
night  or  one  o'clock  Sunday  morning.  I  noticed  men  scattered 
here  and  there  along  East  Diamond  avenue  in  llazol  town- 
ship. So  1  went  to  my  home  and  got  my  overcoat.  It  was  a 
little  cold,  a  little  chilly,  that  night,  and  I  started  down  East 
]3iamond  avenue  as  far  as  the  dirt  banks  at  No.  2  slope.  I  saw 
two  men  here,  and  two  there,  and  maybe  one  here.  Well,  I  ad- 
vised them  all  along  the  line,  whatever  they  did,  not  to  harm  any- 
one and  to  keep  off  the  company  property  or  to  stay  away  from 
company  property  altogether.  I  came  back  then.  I  went  up  as 
far  as  Laurel  Hill,  which  is  about  three  miles  from  No.  2  banks. 
I  went  up  to  the  hospital,  and  then  I  went  down  on  the  other 
side.     1   walked  down  there  about  a  mile  out  of  Hazleton. 

•TestiiiHiiiy  pj).   1598-9. 


86 

"Q.  That  is  practically  all  around  the  Lehigh  Valley  Coal  Com- 
pany's property? 

"A.  No.  40  ? 

"Q.  Yes. 

"A.  Yes,  sir.  1  saw  men  scattered  there;  some  out  smoking 
pipes,  some  sitting  do^^■n  at  little  fires  playing  cards,  and  other^s 
lying  alongside  of  them  asleep.  So  I  advised  them  over  again, 
whatever  they  did,  not  to  molest  anyone."* 

The  following  is  a  part  of  the  cross-examination  of  the 

same  witness : 

"Q.  They  were  doing  what  is  called  picket  duty  there,  were  they 
not? 

"A.  Yes,  sir. 

'•Q.  That  is  what  they  were  doing,  was  it  not? 

"A.  Yes,  sir;  and  good  pickets  they  were."f 

Subsequently  under  questioning  by  the  Chairman  of  the 
Commission  Mr.  McKelvey  admitted  that  the  occasion  of 
this  incident  was  a  rumor  that  work  was  about  to  be  com- 
menced at  this  colliery.^  Just  what  it  means  to  say  that 
the  picketing  was  well  done  is  indicated  by  an  extract  from 
a  letter  written  on  September  23,  1902,  to  Governor  Stone 
and  General  Gobin  by  Sheriff  Beddall  of  Schuylkill  county. 
He  said  in  part : 

"Men,  acting  lor  the  strikers,  post  themselves  at  various  points 
as  pickets,  ostensibly  to  persuade  men  by  argument  from  going  to 
work,  but  in  numerous  instances  the  workmen  are  threatened, 
assailed,  beaten  and  driven  back,  and  in  an  inconsiderable  time 
mobs  are  assembled."§ 

General  Gobin's  testimony  to  the  skill  with  which  this 

work  was  planned  and  the  effectiveness  of  its  execution 

must  also  be  repeated : 

"I  want  to  say,  to  the  credit  of  the  gentlemen  who  were  running 
the  other  side  of  the  campaign,  that  they  did  the  best  picketing 
that  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  1  could  not  move  a  column  of  my 
troops  in  any  direction,  or  at  any  time  of  the  day  or  night,  without 

^Testimony  p.  8434. 
fTestimony  p.  8450. 
^Testimony  pp.  8465-6. 
§Testimony  p.  4616. 


87 

finding  some  people  on  duty.  Even  the  lieadquartei's  in  my  stable 
were  well  picketed,  and  1  appreciated  the  manner  in  which  they 
did  it.     They  did  it  well,  but  a  little  inconvenient."* 

Happily  it  is  uot  necessary  here  to  repeat  the  appalling 
record  of  this  period  of  terror.  During  its  progress  many 
houses  occupied  by  the  defenceless  wives  and  children  of 
men  who  were  at  work  were  wrecked  by  dynamite,  women 
and  children  were  beaten  because  their  husbands  and 
fathers  were  earning  their  daily  bread  in  the  mines,  and 
homes  were  destroyed  by  fire.  Some  men  who  worked  were 
murdered,  and  others  were  stoned,  stabbed  or  beaten.  Col- 
lieries were  attacked  and  men  driven  from  work  by  stones 
or  shots  from  fire-arms.  And  with  this  long  record  of 
atrocities,  with  many  of  which  members  and  officers  of  the 
union  have  been  connected  by  direct  evidence,  there  is  noi 
a  line  of  testimony  to  show  that  a  single  member  of  the 
organization  was  ever  disciplined  for  complicity  in  a  viola- 
tion of  the  peace  of  the  community.  Members  of  the  locals 
have  been  fined  and  expelled  for  being  too  efficient  or 
ambitious  as  workmen,  but  none  has  been  similarly  pun- 
ished for  a  violation  of  law  or  of  public  decency  in  the  effort 
to  ])revent  men  from  working  during  the  strike. f  But  it 
has  been  claimed  that  the  organization  is  not  responsible 
for  the  lawnessness  and  violence  that  occurred.  The  posi- 
tion of  tliose  who  use  this  argument  is  that  what  took  place 
was  nothing  more  than  the  natural  accompaniment  of  a 
period  of  stress  and  idleness.  Even  if  it  could  be  admitted 
that  this  is  true  the  fact  would  remain  that  it  was  the 
union  wliicli  l)r()iighl  :\\u)ui  tbc  idleness  and  contention. 
'I'liat   the  lawlessness  wliicb  s[)rang  up,  in  a  luanncr  Hint 

*Testimony  pp.  4.'3!)3-4. 

fMr.  Mitchell.  Testimony  i)p.  :iSl,  r.\-2-:i.  2(122,  4387,  4.3<)1. 
Terronce  Ciiiilcy.  ]>p.  4.'}(i8,  4.37(>  d  .sny.  Tliomas  Walkiiis,  ]>]). 
335G  et  scq. 


88 

certainly  suggests  some  prearrangement,  all  over  the  an- 
thracite region  at  about  the  time  of  the  Shenandoah  riot 
and  continued  until  suppressed  by  the  militia  or  made 
objectless  by  the  termination  of  the  strike  is  a  necessary 
accompaniment  of  the  idleness  of  the  mines  is  an  unde- 
served aspersion  upon  thousands  of  workmen  which  is  ab- 
solutely refuted  by  the  fact  that  for  the  first  two  months 
and  a  half  there  was  relatively  little  disorder.*  Moreover 
when  violence  came  it  was  adapted  to  the  enforcement  of 
the  purposes  of  the  organization  with  a  precision  which 
cannot  be  overlooked.  If  most  of  the  attacks  upon  indi- 
viduals, on  homes,  and  on  collieries  had  been  planned  in 
the  secret  councils  of  the  leaders  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible that  they  should  have  been  more  effective  in  mak- 
ing work  unattractive  both  to  the  miners  and  to  the  opera- 
tors. The  outbreaks  were  not  purposeless  exhibitions  of 
restlessness,  but  they  were  especially  directed  at  the  men 
who  tried  to  work  or  the  collieries  at  which  efforts  were 
made  to  mine  coal  or  those  mines  whose  preservation  their 
owners  persisted  in  attempting  in  order  that  they  might 
be  made  to  supply  coal  in  the  future.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  'Mt.  James  Gallagher  understands  union  methods,  as 
he  does  most  things  that  have  fallen  within  his  sphere  of 
observation.  His  explanation  of  the  reason  that  there  was 
no  rioting  at  Jeddo  is  therefore  worthy  of  quotation.  At 
Scranton  he  testified  as  follows : 

"There  was  neither  deputies  nor  coal  and  iron  policemen,  nor 
soldiers,  until  about  three  or  four  weeks  before  the  (end  of  the?) 
strike,  nor  no  call  for  them,  because  there  was  nobody  working 
there.  As  soon  as  ever  the  strike  commenced,  the  men  pulled  the 
fire  from  under  the  boilers  and  stopped  the  pumps  and  there  was 
nothing  doing  except  two  or  three  bosses  that  was  running  around, 
and  we  didn't  pay  no  attention  to  them."t 

*See  testimony  of  Dr.  Roberts,  quoted  on  p.  84. 
jTestimony  p.  1650. 


89 

And  when  recalled  at  Philadelphia  he  used  the  following 
words : 

"I  never  seen  thorn  commit  any  criminal  acts  of  violence.  We 
had  no  right  to  do  that  in  Jeddo,  because  there  was  nobody  work- 
ing there,  no  non-union  men,  and  therefore  we  had  nothing  to  con- 
tend with  or  to  quarrel  or  fight  about."* 

Father  Curran's  observation  also  supports  the  idea  that 
the  lawlessness  was  systematically  directed  and  in  aid  of 
the  efforts  to  prevent  the  mining,  preparation  and  mar- 
keting of  coal.  A  part  of  his  testimony,  given  under  cross- 
examination,  follows : 

"Q.  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  the  violence  which  characterized  this 
whole  region  has  been  caused  by  his  attempt  to  work? 

"A.  The  'scabs'? 

"Q.  Yes,  or  the  mine  operators  attempting  to  operate  their 
mines? 

"A.  Yes,  sir;  a  great  deal  of  it. 

"Q.  Is  it  not  a  fact.  Father,  that  at  every  mine — and  I  speak 
now  particularly  of  the  individual  operators  where  no  attempt 
was  maae  to  work — that  it  was  not  necessary  even  to  hire  a 
guard;  is  that  not  a  fact?     Do  you  understand  my  question? 

"A.  Ihat  it  was  not  necessary  to  hire  a  guard  where  there  was 
no  work  ? 

"Q.  And  they  were  actually  not  hired;  is  not  that  a  tact? 

"A.   ies ;  that  is  generally  true. 

"Q.  Violence  followed  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  operator  to 
work  his  property  or  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  nonunion  em- 
ployee to  go  to  work,  did  it  not? 

"A.  I  admit  that." 

Such  is  the  conclusion  to  v^'liicli  an  avowed  friend  of  the 
organization  was  forced  by  facts  which  do  not  admit  of 
dispute.  Whether  planned  in  detail  by  officers  of  the 
union  or  merely  the  result  of  their  general  doctrines  and 
tlicir  violent  denunciations  ol"  all  who  disagreed  with  them 
they  were  equally  adapted  to  the  realization  of  the  ])ur- 
poses  which  every  leader  had  in  \\v\v.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  voices  of  tlic  nini'c  proininciit  officers  were  very 
softlv  modulated  when  tlicv  discussed  in  public  thf  nictbod.s 


^Testimony  p.  9012. 


90 

of  preventing  the  resumption  of  mining  operations.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  union  had  peace  committees  in  some 
places,  although  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very 
active,  or  that  in  one  instance  at  least  officers  of  the  organi- 
zation issued  a  proclamation  advising  the  observance  of 
the  law.  So  far  as  their  public  expressions  go  there  is 
little  to  indicate  that  the  leaders  incited  violence.  They 
were  profuse  in  offers  and  promises  of  assistance,  but 
General  Gobin  testified*  that  "they  never  did  anything" 
in  the  execution  of  these  promises,  and  the  exceptions  to 
this  rule  must  have  been  very  rare  and  do  not"  include  a 
single  instance  of  effective  opposition  to  lawlessness.  Thus 
the  sheriff  of  Lakawanna  county  had  conferences  with  Mr. 
Mitchell  in  which  the  latter  agreed  to  use  all  his  per- 
suasiveness to  subdue  the  growing  violence,  but  it  con- 
tinued to  grow.f  Mr.  Thomas  Duffy,  then  a  district  presi- 
dent of  the  Mine  Workers,  led  the  crowd  which  succeeded 
in  sending  back  to  Philadelphia  the  steammen  who  had 
been  hired  by  Messrs.  J.  S.  Wentz  &  Co.  These  men  were 
told  that ; — 

"  .  .  .  .  Avhatever  boiler  house  they  would  go  to  to  keep  up 
steam  would  be  blown  up  with  dynamite."J 

but  Mr.  Duffy  disputes  the  charge  that  he  used  violent  and 
profane  language  or  did  anything  more  than  sweetly  to 
persuade  the  men  to  let  the  mines  be  flooded. §  Mr.  John 
Fallon,  who  promised  Mrs.  Ehoda  Snyder  that  he  would 
"go  right  up  and  attend  to  if  when  she  went  to  him  at 
headquarters  to  say  that  her  property  was  threatened  by 
strikers,  and  did  nothing  of  an  effective  character  to  pre- 
vent its  destruction,  is  a  member  of  the  Xational  Executive 

*Testimony  p.  4704. 

fSheriff  Charles  H.  Schadt.     Testimony  pp.   394G-7. 
:|:Mr.  John  Weber,  superintendent  for  J.  S.  Wentz  &  Co.     Testi- 
mony p.  7 009. 

§Testimony  pp.  9069-70. 


91 

Board  of  the  organization.  The  house  was  rifled  that  nighl 
and  burned  to  the  ground.*  This  officer,  although  present 
at  most  of  the  sessions,  had  to  be  called  as  a  witness  by  the 
non-union  men  in  order  that  the  Commission  might  have 
the  benefit  of  any  part  of  his  knowledge  of  the  anthracite 
situation,  and  then  testified  that  he  attended  a  great  many 
hearings  of  persons  arrested  for  breaches  of  the  peace  and 
made  efforts  to  get  bail  for  the  defendants.  His  explana- 
tion of  this  activity  was : 

"I  just  merely  went  being  as  I  was  an  ofRcer."t 

Another  incident  of  Mr.  Fallon's  relations  to  the  strike 

was  testified  to  as  follows : 

"A  man  who  had  a  revolver  had  pointed  it  at  myself  and  the 
deputy  sheriff,  and  told  us  he  was  going  to  shoot  us,  and  our  men 
jumped  on  him  and  overpowered  him  and  we  took  the  revolver 

away  from  him When  i  took  this  man  up  that  had 

threatened  to  shoot  us  this  morning,  1  took  him  up  there  with 
three  others  who  were  arrested  the  same  morning,  and  the  crowd 
pushed  in  and  ilr.  Fallon  was  very  evident.  He  pushed  around 
and  went  up  to  the  man — I  do  not  remember  his  name,  but  he  was 
a  Freeland  man — and  shook  hands  with  him  and  patted  him  on 
the  back  and  saiu,  'Brave  boy!  I  will  look  out  for  you,'  and  a 
lot  of  that  kind  of  talk.  This  man  was  arrested  because  he  almost 
precipitated  a  riot,  and  I  must  say  that  it  was  a  very  narrow  es- 
cape. Jf  the  man  had  fired  the  consequences  might  liave  been 
serious.''^ 

The  statement  of  the  president  of  one  of  the  local  unions 
lo  an  inside  foreman  that  lie  wouldn't  have  men  at  work 
very  long  as  it  would  "Ijc  made  good  and  hot  for  them" 
was  followed  at  four  o'clock  the  next  morning  by  the 
gathering  at  tlie  colliery  of  a  crowd  of  between  five  and 
seven  liundi-cd  men  armed  with  l)asol)all  I)ats  and  shot 
guns.§     Another  |)i-esideiit  of  a  local  plead  guilty  to  con- 

*TestiTnony  j)]).  .'i474  ct  seq. 

fTestimony  pp.  3474  ct  seq. 

JMr.  Willard  ^'llUllg.     Testimony  pp.  7537-9. 

§]\rr.  Willard  A.  Wallaco.     Testimony  pp.  420!)  ct  seq. 


92 

spiracy*  and  still  another  witnessed,  without  attempting 

to  prevent,  the  clubbing  of  Mr.  David  Harris  who  was  also 

shot  at,  is  sixty-four  years  of  age,  and  was  merely  acting 

in  his  regular  capacity  as  a  fire-boss. f     These  instances 

should  be  sufficient  to  establish  a  presumption  that  there 

was  some  participation  of  officers  in  other  acts  of  violence. 

If  there  was  not  any  such  control  over  violence  it  would 

be  well  to  explain  why  Mr.  Martin  Bubble,  secretary  of 

Local  No.  484,  could  protect  his  brother,  who  remained  at 

work,  by  issuing  under  the  seal  of  the  union  the  following : 

"United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  Local  484.  Martin  Bubble, 
secretary.  Wilkesbarre,  August  25,  1902.  To  whom  it  may  con- 
cern: Do  not  interfere  with  Louis  Bubble  to  and  from  work. 
(Signed)  Martin  Bubble,  Sec.     James  Gallagher.''^ 

The  authority  claimed  and  exercised  by  the  leaders  of 
the  Mine  Workers  over  the  industry  of  the  anthracite 
region  did  not  stop  with  the  prevention  of  coal  mining.  It 
was  Mr.  Mitchell,  to  whom  the  president  of  the  local  tele- 
phoned for  instructions,  who  forbade  the  liverymen  of 
Kingston  to  haul  coal  from  the  mines  to  Wyoming  Semi- 
nary, but  generously  permitted  them  to  haul  it  from  the 
station. §  It  was  District  President  Fahy  who,  when  an 
attempt  was  made  to  build  a  boiler-house  for  the  Lehigh 
Valley  Coal  Company,  wrote  to  Mr.  Mandeville  saying  that 
he  could  not  grant  ''permission"  under  the  circumstances 
then  existing.  1 1  It  was  Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Fahy  who 
refused  permission  to  Mr.  Christ  to  rebuild  the  breakers 
at  the  Keeley  Eun  and  Crystal  Run  collieries,  the  latter 
saying : 

*Testimony  pp.  4988  and  5002. 

fMr.  David  Harris.     Testimony  p.  4081. 

|Testimony  pp.  4176  et  seq. 

§Rev.  Levi  L.  Sprague.     Testimony  pp.  387.')  ct  scq. 

llMr.  R.  S.  Mercur.     Testimony  p.  6336. 


93 

"It  is  this  way,  Christ:  If  we  grant  yovi  permission  to  buikl  a 
breaker,  someone  else  mc.y  come  and  ask  permission  to  pump 
water,  another  may  ask  permission  to  mine  coal.  We  don't  Icnow 
where  this  might  stop."* 

Mr.  Christ  also  testified  that  the  men  whom  he  attempted 
to  employ  were  deterred  by  fear  and  that  those  whom  he 
succeeded  in  getting  were  molested.f  These  instances  of 
direct  connection  on  the  part  of  officers  with  violence  and 
directions  which  if  disobeyed  must  lead  to  violence  seems 
to  explain  why  the  information  possessed  by  District  Presi- 
dents Nichols  and  Fahy  was  not  offered  to  the  Commis- 
sion and  former  District  President  Duffy  was  not  called 
as  a  witness  until  the  last  days  of  the  hearing  and  then 
only  to  deny  a  single  accusation.  Over  and  over  again 
while  on  the  stand  Mr.  Mitchell  referred  to  these  officers, 
and  particularly  to  Mr.  Mchols,  as  possessing  detailed  in- 
formation Avhich  he  did  not  have  and  promised  that  they 
would  be  called  to  testify.^  Yet  the  Commission  is  still 
without  the  light  which  they  would  be  peculiarly  able  to 
supply. 

There  is,  however,  a  broader  responsibility  than  that 
established  by  the  incidents  that  have  been  recited  from 
which  no  leader  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  who  w^as 
active  in  the  recent  strike  can  escape.  The  doctrine  so 
industriously  inculcated  that  no  man  has  the  moral  right 
to  work  when  others  are  on  a  strike  leads  inevitably  to 
violence.  Leaders  of  men  cannot  teach  tliat  some  men  are 
acting  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  morality  without  inciting 
some  of  those  who  believe  themselves  to  be  damaged  to 
resort  to  force  to  bring  about  general  conformity  to  the 
moral  code  which  they  accept.    All  the  atrocities  of  intoler- 

''Mr.  11.  K.  Ohrist.     Testimony  i)p.  7467-8. 
•j-Testimony  pp.  7481-2. 

^Testimony  pp.  197.  2.32,  HI 7,  543,  557,  582,  ()57,  2559,  2573, 
2579  and  2580. 


94 

auce  that  blacken  the  pages  of  history  have  been  justified 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  committed  them  by  the  plea, 
that  their  victims  were  acting  immorally.  Few  men  who 
think  themselves  directly  injured  by  acts  which  they  be- 
lieve contravene  the  standards  of  morality  will  patiently 
await  the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  upon  those  who  com- 
mit them.  Little  could  it  be  expected  that  such  patience 
would  generally  be  exercised  in  the  anthracite  region  when 
this  new  law  of  morals  was  being  urged  with  such  vigor 
by  those  responsible  for  its  discovery.  When  they,  on  every 
possible  occasion,  likened  the  men  who  remained  at  work 
at  the  pumps  or  in  the  mines  or  washeries  to  the  loyalists 
of  the  American  Eevolution,  it  is  not  strange  that  some  of 
those  at  whom  their  denunciations  were  hurled  were  treated 
worse  than  were  those  who  in  the  Southern  states  during 
the  Civil  War  remained  true  to  the  American  Union. 

BOYCOTTING. 

The  use  of  boycotting  during  the  strike  is  but  another 
expression  of  the  same  sentiment.  It  was  directed  against 
the  men  who  Avorked,  against  their  families  and  relatives 
and  against  those  who  supplied  any  of  them  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  It  is  the  precise  equivalent  of  the  blacklist, 
a  thing  that  does  not  exist  in  the  anthracite  region,  but  is 
an  instrument  for  the  preservation  of  which  those  who 
decry  the  latter  are  most  solicitous.  Dr.  Eoberts  declares 
that— 

"It  is  the  fashion  of  the  day  to  be  one  of  the  union,  and  if  you 
are  not,  the  boycott  falls  on  you."* 

And  Mr.  Mitchell,  referring  to  an  expression  of  Arch- 
bishop Ireland,  said : 

"It  depends  on  what  the  Archbishop  means  by  it.  If  he  means 
that  men  have  not  a   rislit  to  boycott,  then  I  disagree  with  him."t 

*Testimony  p.  850. 
fTestimony  p.  482. 


95 

While  in  another  phice  lie  gave  tacit  approval  of  the 
secondar}'  hoycott  as  follows: 

"Q.  Suppose  a  grocery  store  was  incorporated,  as  it  might  be,  or 
suppose  tlie  grocery  storekeeper  has  a  license  to  conduct  a  grocery 
store.  Do  you  say  he  has  any  right,  legal  or  moral,  to  decline  to 
sell  to  me  because  I  am  pursuing  a  lawful  occupation  against 
which  you  protest? 

''A.  Well,  I  do  not  know  what  the  law  is  in  its  application  to 
storekeepers;  I  do  not  know  whether  they  have  the  right  to  sell 
to  whom  they  please. 

"Q.  Do  you  think  you  have  a  moral  right  to  tell  liim  not  to 
sell  to  my  wife  because  I  am  pursuing  a  lawful  occupation  in  a 
lawful  manner? 

"A.  No;  but  1  have  a  right  to  tell  him  that  1  do  not  propose  to 
deal  with  him  any  more."" 

FLOODING  THE  MIJ^ES. 
Earely  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  arbitrary  author- 
ity been  exercised  in  a  more  iniquitous  manner  than  in  the 
order  requiring  the  men  whose  duties  were  to  protect  the 
mines  from  flooding  to  leave  their  posts.  The  pretense  that 
this  was  an  independent  strike  of  the  steam-men  and  not  a 
mere  device  to  compel  compliance  with  the  general  demands 
of  the  j\Iine  Workers  is  unworthy  of  consideration.  These 
employees  were  "directed"  by  the  organization  to  make 
certain  demands,  and  in  at  least  one  instance  in  which  all 
that  they  asked  was  granted  they  were  not  "permitted"  to 
remain  at  work.f  Some  of  the  steam-men  of  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western  were  utterly  opposed  to  a  strike, 
and  held  a  meeting,  at  which  they  passed  resolutions  con- 
denming  it  and  asking  Mr.  Mitchell  to  rescind  the  order.| 
Two-thirds  of  those  who  attended  this  meeting  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Mine  Workcrs.§  and  they  sent  a  committee  to 
request  of  ^h".  ^litclicll  permission  to  save  the  mines  from 


•Testimony  p.  384. 

fMr.  Mitchell.     Testimony  ]>]>.  (ill  and  l^.").'}. 

^Testimony  pp.  0238-0. 

§Tcstimony  pp.  G2.'5.')  ct  scq. 


96 

flooding.  He  declined  to  relieve  them  from  the  obnoxious 
order,  and  Mr.  Nichols  threatened  that  if  they  refused  to 
obey  it  they  "would  be  scoffed  at  and  would  be  ostracized" 
and  their  "children  would  suffer  insult."*  If  the  Union 
had  been  successful  in  its  efforts  to  prevent  pumping,  as  it 
was  at  several  collieries  which  have  not  yet  begun  to  con- 
tribute their  quota  to  the  supply  of  anthracite  so  sorely 
needed  by  the  public  or  been  able  to  give  employment  to 
their  usual  complement  of  workmen,  the  tragedy  of  a  coal 
famine  would  have  been  enacted  to  the  end  throughout 
every  eastern  state.  The  opinion  of  Dr.  Eoberts,  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  Yale  Eeview  of  November,  1902,  is  that  of 
a  fair-minded  and  sympathetic  student  who  had  excep- 
tional opportunities  to  learn  the  truth.  He  writes  as  fol- 
lows : 

"When  the  miners  were  called  out,  the  firemen,  pump-runners 
and  engineers  continued  to  work,  and  thus  kept  the  mines  from 
being  flooded.  On  May  21  John  Mitchell  ordered  these  men  out, 
unless  the  companies  granted  them  eight  hours  as  a  day's  work 
and  no  reduction  in  wages.  This  the  operators,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, refused  to  do,  and  on  June  2  about  eighty  per  cent  of  the 
above  employees  quit  work.  The  majority  of  the  collieries  were 
in  danger  of  being  flooded  and  much  property  destroyed.  Meas- 
ures were  immediately  taken  to  preserve  the  properties.  Superin- 
tendents, foremen,  assistant  foremen,  clerks  and  an  army  of  im- 
ported men  took  charge  of  the  pumps  and  stationary  engines,  and 
by  j^ersistent  and  strenuous  efforts  most  of  the  collieries  were  kept 
from  being  flooded.  All  sections  of  the  coal  field  were  not  equally 
successful  in  doing  this.  There  were  half  a  dozen  shafts  in  the 
southern  coal  field,  which  gave  employment  to  nearly  2,500  hands, 
at  the  mercy  of  the  rising  waters,  and  four  or  five  months  from  the 
resumption  of  Avork,  October  24,  will  expire  before  these  mines  will 
be  in  working  order.  On  June  16  John  Mitchell  ordered  out  all 
fire  bosses,  loader  bosses,  barn  bosses,  etc.  These  classes  of  mine 
emi^loyees  were  not  members  of  the  Miners'  Union,  and  the  order 
seemed  presumptuous,  to  say  the  least.  It  can  only  be  justified 
on  the  assumption  that  the  organization  was  anxious  to  cripple 
the  operators  in  every  conceivable  manner  and  carry  the  conflict 
to  the  furthest  possible  extent.     About  thirty  per  cent  of  these 

"'Testimony  pp.  6246  et  seq.     See  also  Mr.  Mitchell,  p.  056. 


97 

eiiiijloyees  quit  work,   niosl  of  tlieni  from  motives  of  fear,   for  it 

was  not  safe  for  them  to  work Those  still  remaining 

at  the  collieries  performed  any  and  all  labor  which  was  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  property.  For  this  they  were  denounced  as 
'scabs'  and  closely  watched  in  going  to  and  coming  from  work. 
Every  colliery  where  water  was  pumped  became  a  beleaguered 
camp.  Around  most  properties  stockades  or  barb-wire  fences  were 
erected.  Armed  deputies  guarded  the  companies'  shafts  and 
breakers  both  night  and  day.  Such  were  the  conditions  luider 
which  the  water  was  kept  out  of  the  mines  during  the  strike. 
.  .  .  .  Lawlessness  and  disorder  were  rife  in  the  anthracite 
coal  fields." 

ATTITUDE  TUWAKD  THE  AGENCIES  OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

The  attitude  of  the  Union  toward  the  judiciary,  the  offi- 
cers of  the  law  and  the  militia  is  also  unsatisfactory.  Mr. 
Mitchell  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  there  is  a 
"growing  feeling  of  disrespect"  among  the  members  of  his 
oi'gaiiization  toward  the  judiciary*  and  those  who  have  ob- 
served the  temi)er  of  many  of  its  officers  M^ll  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  assigning  a  reason.  "Sqnire"  McKelvey,  a  justice 
of  the  peace  at  Hazleton,  who,  on  account  of  his  ability  to 
persuade  men  not  to  work  and  his  expressed  belief  that  it 
is  "everybody's  business"  to  do  likewise,t  is  probably  not 
included  in  this  feeling,  in  an  official  letter,  characterized 
as  "armed  thugs"  the  officers  of  the  law  and  charged  them 
with  an  evident  purpose  "to  incite  peaceful,  law-abiding 
miners  to  break  the  peace"  so  as  to  be  able  to  shoot  theni.:{: 
The  joint  convention  at  Hazleton  adopted  a  resolution  for- 
bidding members  of  the  Mine  Workers  from  acting  as 
deputy  sheriffs  or  coal  and  iron  policemen. §  General 
Gobin  testified  that  the  soldiers  under  his  command;— 

"  .  .  .  .  were  constantly  insulted;  there  was  no  vile  name 
that  was  not  emploj^ed  toward  them,  and  I  was  compelled  to  keep 

•Testimony  p.  487. 
fTestimony  pp.  8455-6. 
:j;Tcstimony  p.  844.3. 
§Tostimony  p.  9115. 


98 

them  out  of  the  town.  1  do  not  think  there  was  an  officer  or  man 
that  could  pass  through  certain  portions  of  the  town  without  being 
subject  to  insult  of  some  kind  or  other.  If  a  man  could  not  talk 
any  English  at  all  he  could  talk  one  vile  epithet  that  he  could 
apply  to  a  soldier."* 

That  this  sentiment  was  not  wholly  an  outgrowth  of  the 
strike  is  shown  by  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Eoberts,  who  de- 
clared that  there  was  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Mine 
Workers  to  persons  who  were  members  of  the  militia  and 
that  when  a  soldier  belonging  to  the  Thirteenth  Eegiment 
secured  employment  at  a  colliery  a  committee  of  the  local 
union  asked  the  foreman  to  dismiss  him.j 

The  foregoing  incidents  appear  sufficient  to  demonstrate 
that  when  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  is  judged 
by  "the  life  it  has  lived"  in  the  anthracite  region  it  is 
definitely  placed  in  the  category  of  organizations,  if  there 
are  any  such,  with  which  it  is  undesirable  that  there  should 
be  any  alliance  or  contractual  relations.  It  shows  that  this 
conclusion,  on  the  part  of  the  operators,  does  not  imply  any 
opposition  to  organized  labor  or  any  reluctance  to  deal  with 
organized  groups  of  workmen,  or  with  committees  or  attor- 
neys-in-fact duly  authorized  by  them.  The  opposition  to 
the  United  Mine  Workers  is  to  its  purposes,  which  are  in- 
consistent with  public  policy  and  to  its  methods  which  are 
un-American  and  despotic  to  the  last  degree. 

CONCLUSION. 
The  anthracite  mining  industry  now  constitutes  the  best 
single  market  for  unskilled  or  but  slightly  skilled  labor  in 
the  United  States  and  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  steadiest. 
The  thirty-eight  thousand  miners  who  hold  certificates 
from  the  state  may  properly  be  regarded  as  skilled,  al- 
though it  is  a  part  of  the  evidence  in  this  case  that  many 
of  them  have  but  a  small  degree  of  skill  and  that  certifi- 


*Testimony  p.  9. 
fTcstimony  pp.  848  and  1037. 


99 

cates  have  been  improperly  issued  by  the  miners  who  have 
been  appointed  to  the  examining  boards.*  Especially 
skilled  also  are  the  men  who  run  the  engines  and  small 
groups  of  men  in  other  classes  of  employment.  But  for 
a  very  large  proportion  of  the  work  little  or  no  skill  or 
experience  is  required.  For  the  men  who  do  such  work  this 
market  for  their  labor  offers  numerous  advantages.  Pri- 
marily, compared  with  nearly  all  other  markets  for  such 
labor,  it  supplies  exceptionally  steady  employment.  For 
men  who  would  otherwise  be  employed  wherever  there  is  a 
ditch  to  be  dug,  or  a  railway  embankment  to  be  throv/n  up. 
who  would  necessarily  go  from  place  to  place  on  the  com- 
pletion of  each  piece  of  work,  the  advantage  of  permanent 
employment  is  great.  It  enables  them  to  acquire  homes 
and  helps  to  make  them  good  citizens.  They  also  have 
unusual  opportunity  to  rise  to  the  grade  of  skilled  work- 
men. Two  years  is  an  exceptionally  short  period  for  learn- 
ing any  trade  and  there  is  neither  a  maximum  age  limit 
restricting  admission  to  the  ranks  of  the  learners,  nor 
a  limit  upon  their  number.  During  the  period  before  a 
certificate  can  legally  be  obtained  good  wages  are  paid. 
When  the  workman  has  become  a  miner  there  is  still  before 
him  a  large  field  for  development,  and  every  increase  in 
efficiency  brings  its  direct  pecuniary  reward. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  wages  compare  most  favorably 
'with  those  in  other  industries,  and  the  facts  of  the  labor 
situation,  including  the  acknowledged  excessive  supply, 
afford  a  certain  foundation  for  the  conclusion  that  the  same 
grades  of  labor  are  not  better  paid  anywhere  else.  Wages 
are  not  anywhere  arbitrarily  adjusted.  At  whatever  level 
they  may  be  found,  it  is  certain  that  it  has  been  reached 
through  an  economic  process,  the  effects  of  which  cannot 

*Mr.  James  Callagher.  Testimony  pp.  1714,  1715  and  17201. 
Mr.  Thomas  Whilden,  p.  7747. 


100 

be  snbjected  to  interference  without  more  or  less  serious 
reactions.  The  attraction  by  which  the  anthracite  region 
has  drawn  labor  beyond  its  needs  will  certainly  be  at  once 
augmented  by  increased  rates  of  wages  or  by  shortening 
the  working  day.  Whether  this  would  be  a  permanent 
result  is  another  question.  The  effect  on  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction and  through  this  upon  prices  and  effective  demand 
might  react  upon  the  industry  so  as  to  impair  the  comfort 
of  the  workmen  and  to  make  the  region  seem  so  much  less 
desirable  than  it  does  at  present  that  some  who  are  now 
there  would  go  elsewhere  and  the  inflow  would  be  stopped. 
It  is  well  to  remember  President  Hadley's  warning,  as  ex- 
pressed in  tbc  following  extract,  from  his  "Economies'": 

"If  the  men  who  demand  a  'living  wage'  are  prepared  to  increase 
tlieir  working  efficiency  as  a  means  of  making  good  their  claim, 
their  demand  is  effective  in  securing  its  object  and  salutary  in  its 
iiiHuence  upon  industrial  life.  But  to  believe  that  the  wages  can 
be  paid  without  tlie  work,  or  even  that  the  increased  efficiency  of 
work    necessarily    results    from    improvement    in    wages,    seems    a 

dangerous    fallacy The    majority    of    trades-union 

leaders  appear  to  underrate  tne  closeness  of  the  competition  of 
capital  and  the  narrowness  of  the  margin  of  profit.  They  do  not 
realize  how  closely  actual  piece  wages  have  been  forced  up  to  tiie 
limit  which  prices  will  allow." 

]Sio  one  should  fail  to  sympathize  with  the  desire  of  any 
group  of  wage-earners  to  increase  their  earnings,  and  when 
Iheir  efforts  in  that  direction  are  consistent  with  the  gen- 
eral welfare  they  should  have  the  support  of  every  good* 
citizen.  But  sympathy  should  be  held  in  check  by  reason, 
and  when  it  is  proposed  to  take  from  one  set  of  wage- 
earners  for  the  sake  of  another,  the  intelligently  sympa- 
thetic man  will  look  to  the  interests  of  both.  That  great 
evil  may  come  from  misdirected  efforts  to  do  good  is  a 
truism  es])ecially  applicable  to  the  present  situation.  Es- 
pecially is  this  true  in  the  light  of  the  fact  that  the  country 
is  obviously  at  the  eulminationof  a  period  of  industrial  pros- 


101  . 

perity  that  must  within  a  few  years  give  place  to  one  of 
relatively  less  activity.  To  fasten  unalterably  npon  the 
anthracite  industry  an  increased  cost  of  production  that 
would  necessarily  raise  the  prices  of  domestic  fuel  to  the 
highest  level  obtainable  even  under  present  conditions 
might  result  in  discomfort  that  would  perhaps  be  but  little 
greater  among  tlie  working  population  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  cities  than  among  the  employees  of  the  anthracite 

mines  and  their  families. 

II.  T.  XEWCOMB. 

Fel)ruary   \2,   VJOo. 


102 


APPENDIX. 

The  demands  of  the  striking  mine  workers  do  not  include 
an  increase  of  wages  for  employees  working  by  the  day, 
week  or  mouth,  but  merely  ask  that  the  amount  of  work  re- 
quired of  these  employees  be  reduced.  It  has  been  shown 
that  the  effect  of  the  reduction  in  the  length  of  the  working 
day  which  has  been  asked  would  be  to  require  more  em- 
ployees in  order  to  produce  the  same  amount  of  coal,  and 
that  it  would  be  impossible  that  it  should  give  those  now 
employed  a  larger  number  of  working  days.  The  reason- 
ableness of  the  earnings  of  these  employees  was  not,  there- 
fore, in  issue  before  the  Commission,  and  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  present  their  earnings  as  a  part  of  the  foregoing 
argument.  In  order  that  the  record  of  earnings  may  be 
complete,  however,  the  following  statements  are  submitted: 


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